The Nigeria football firmament turned pale on Thursday evening after it was confirmed that the country’s 1994 and 1998 FIFA World Cup first-choice goalkeeper, Peter Rufai, had died in Lagos following a period of illness.
Reports said the flamboyant goal-tender, who was in and out of the Nigeria senior team for seventeen years, had been ill for some weeks, before giving up the ghost at a Lagos hospital on Thursday, and former Nigeria international midfielder, Waidi Akanni, confirmed that the body of one of Nigeria football’s true heroes had been deposited at a Lagos hospital.
A first-choice goalkeeper in three championships, Rufai made his debut for then Green Eagles in a friendly match in December 1981, and won the Africa Cup of Nations silver in 1984 and 1988, before Nigeria swept to glory in the continental finals in Tunisia in 1994.
Describing the death as “really shocking”, the NFF General Secretary, Mohammed Sanusi, prayed God to grant him eternal rest, and to comfort all his loved ones, as well as the entire Nigeria football family.
