Peter Rufai, Super Eagles famous goalkeeper who gave infinite frustration to strikers of opposing teams has been given a red card. There is no need for confirmation by a Video Assistant Referee (VAR) because he has already been sent off the field of play for ever and out of the world for ever. He is dead, dead at 61 years of age. A pity!
Rufai also known by the lyrical name of Dodo Mayana died on July 3, this year leaving hordes of his admirers in tears. Rufai, with an impressive height of 6’2” began his football career with the sensational Stationery Stores in Lagos recording four years of active goalkeeping for the club before he went abroad to play professionally. He kept watch of the goalmouth for clubs in Belgium, Netherlands, Portugal and Spain. He also earned 65 caps for Nigeria, representing Nigeria in two world cups (1994, 1998) and two African Cup of Nations tournaments. He won the 1994 African Cup of Nations with Nigeria. In that same year Super Eagles made their debut appearance at the World Cup in the United Sattes and Rufai was instrumental, along with his colleagues, to Nigeria reaching the last 16 in that tournament. It has not happened again since then.
Goalkeepers do not score goals. They are only expected to prevent goals from being scored against their teams by making scintillating saves. But in July 24, 1993 Rufai did the unexpected. In a CAN qualifying match against Ethiopia, Rufai the goalkeeper became Rufai the goal scorer. He scored a penalty in a 6-0 home win against Ethiopia and the stadium erupted with an uproar.
Rufai who had a masters degree in Business Administration was not satisfied with just being a retired footballer. He wanted to give something back to the game that made him famous. He returned to Spain in 2003 and opened a goalkeeper’s training school so that young people who wanted to follow his footpath might be trained on how to stop the shots. That was a school founded by an expert in his field who wanted to pass on to younger goalkeepers the experience he had acquired for many years. That is called giving back to society, a society that had given you the opportunity to excel. That is humanitarianism. That is Good Samaritanism.
On the football field goalkeeping is the toughest job. Strikers may miss scoring chances but they are often not crucified because they may have been scoring goals in the past. And they are also expected to score again in the future. Besides, strikers are respected for the number of goals that they score and for the assists that are recorded for them. But a goalkeeper is rated not on the number of saves he makes but on whether he kept a clean sheet or not. When opponents score it counts against the goalkeeper for allowing them to score whether it was his fault or not. When the goalkeepers’ mate makes a mistake and scores an own goal it is the goalkeeper’s record that is being messed up even if the goalkeeper was not at fault. In a football match every effort made by the footballers is targeted at the goal mouth of the opposing team. So no goalkeeper can afford to be absentminded even for a few seconds. If he loses concentration that may result in an unexpected drive into his net. Goalkeepers hardly win omnibus awards or Most Valuable Player awards because they are judged with the wrong statistics. They are judged by the number of goals they concede or alternatively by the number of clean sheets that they keep. Shouldn’t they be judged largely by the number of saves that they make? That would be a fairer way of assessing goalkeepers. That is my recommendation because while strikers are expected to score goals, goalkeepers are expected to make saves. And in every match goalkeepers make more saves than strikers score goals. Yet when a team wins a match it is largely the goalscorers not the goalsavers that are celebrated. That is why goalkeepers do not win major awards. Will the football authorities review how goalkeepers are assessed by looking at the saves and not the scores? I know they will not because goals are the gems of the game. Scoring goals is more important than saving them. That is why when a goal is scored a volcanic eruption occurs on the field and outside the field. Sometimes the goalscorer removes his jersey and throws away not minding the fact that he will be punished with a yellow card for that misbehavior. However, it is some kind of consolation that goalkeepers are now given awards for excellent goalkeeping.
However, Vincent Enyeama is widely regarded as Nigeria’s best goalkeeper. In 2023 the International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS) recognised Enyeama as the best African Goalkeeper of all time. Eventhough I have enormous respect for Enyeama’s achievements I do not believe in anybody being named as the “best for all time” since we are yet to reach the end of time. If we haven’t yet reached the end of time how do we know who might beat all previous records in future?
Rufai is one of the Super Eagles players who made the country proud both in the World Cup and the African Cup of Nations. Five of them have died so far without getting appropriate support from our football decision makers. They are Stephen Keshi, Rashidi Yekini, Wilfred Agbonavbare, Thompson Oliha and Uche Okafor. Rufai is reported to have been sick for a long time. If the football bosses knew about his ill health and did nothing about it, then it would be a shame, a big shame. It would be a disincentive to people who would like to wear the Nigerian jersey and risk their lives on the field of play. The football authorities may argue that most of the people who played football for Nigeria also played for big clubs who paid them fabulous salaries. By that line of argument these players do not need the support of the football managers when they are in distress. That reasoning is faulty. Even if those players do not need money from the football managers they need compassion, they need love. Compassion and love may even be more important to them than money. Nigerian football managers are notorious for using and dumping, kissing and kicking away which is why they find it difficult to convince Nigerians who are playing age grade football for countries of their birth but whose parents are Nigerian to change their allegiance to Nigeria. In other sports there is a long list of Nigerians who have changed their allegiance and are winning honours for other countries. They are doing so because Nigeria’s sports managers treat our sportsmen and women condescendingly, absentmindedly, unfairly and unjustly. We can’t hope to win honours without pampering those who bring or are in a position to bring us those honours.
Peter Rufai, our legendary stand-out goalkeeper, who was also very amiable and funny is gone but there are many others alive who put Nigeria on the podium of success. Let us find out where they are and what is happening to them. Flowery condolence messages at the death of our heroes are good but not enough. Showing them love and compassion while they are alive will make the difference, a significant difference, a positive difference, to them and their families. Will our sports managers turn a new leaf? Let’s hope so.