Peter Rufai
He is regarded as one of the best goalkeepers to have come out of Nigeria and indeed Africa. But not many know how the former Super Eagles safe-hand, Peter Rufai alias Dodo Mayana, became a goalkeeper. Rufai went down memory lane in an interview with KUNLE ADEWALE...
Looking at him, not much has changed about him at present. He was the goalkeeper whose big frame at the goal post scared many strikers, making them to shoot wide or straight into his hands. Though he is burly, he still keeps his athletic frame. How well he has maintained his stature and his cat-like agility were on display recently during the Milo U-13 at the Agege Stadium, Agege, Lagos, where he tried to put children through the rudiment of the game.
“I still watch the kind of food I eat, I don’t just eat anyhow. I still go by some of the diet recommended by dieticians while I was into active football. Though, I may have retired from playing football but I still partake in the game actively, which may have been responsible for my still being fit. I’m involved in a lot of football clinics for young kids because I still want to discover many of the numerous hidden talents in Nigeria,” Rufai said when asked the reason for his fitness.
Like most sportsmen, Rufai started kicking football around the streets of Port Harcourt at a very tender age and carried on up till secondary school, but it was at the Federal Technical College in Port Harcourt that Rufai who played 65 international games for Nigeria really discovered his goalkeeping talent.
“I took to goalkeeping while I was playing in school, and the goalkeeper for my side was conceding what I felt were cheap goals. In annoyance, I asked him to make way for me, after which I abandoned my striking role for the goalpost. I put up a splendid performance that memorable day and since then my colleagues would always want me to stay at the goal post anytime my school is involved in a football match. That was how I turned from being a goal hunter to a shot-stopper,” Dodo Mayana as he was fondly called recalled.
Ever since then, things started going in favour of Rufai in the school football team. He would always remember with nostalgia one fateful day in school while preparing for his examination and officials of Sharks Football Club of Port Harcourt came calling because their first-choice goalkeeper was injured. They said they would rather prefer young secondary school goal tender to their reserved goalkeepers.
“I was writing my exams when officials of Sharks requested that I should travel with them for a Challenge Cup game in Kaduna because their first choice goalkeeper was not feeling fine and their goalkeeper trainer so much believed in me. The officials of the club then took permission from the school authorities, which was granted them. That was how I broke into club football without even preparing for it and at a tender age of 15 years.
After the Challenge Cup matches in Kaduna, my impressive performance was not lost on Stationery Stores of Lagos. The club lured me down to Lagos to join them and from then on my march to the national team was inevitable,” Rufai said.
On how his parents felt that their ward was abandoning his exams for football considering that in those days parents preferred their children to give much attention to education than to sports, the former Go Ahead Eagles of Holland safe-hand said: “Because I was living in the hostel, my parents didn’t know that I had left school for Kaduna otherwise they may not have allowed me.”
The 49 years old former Stationary Stores of Lagos shot stopper was the first Nigerian goalkeeper to move out of the shores of the country in pursuit of his professional career when he was signed by AS Dragon F.C of Benin Republic in 1986. He later played for Belgian club sides, Lokeren and Beveren, before moving to Go Ahead Eagles of Holland in the 1993. He helped Nigeria lift the Africa Cup of Nations trophy for a second time after defeating Zambia in the final. His performance at the African Nations Cup earned him a subsequent call-up to the Nigeria squad that played in the 1994 FIFA World Cup hosted by the United States of America. As both captain and goalkeeper of the team, he succeeded in ensuring Nigeria gave a commanding performance at her first World Cup outing.
The team got to the round of 16, before succumbing to the more experienced Italians inspired by Roberto Baggio. In 1998, the stage was set for Ike Shorunmu to man the post at the World Cup having featured in the friendly game with Germany. But he suddenly suffered an injury while on duty for his Swiss club, thereby ending his France ’98 dream. Rufai, who was on holiday resurfaced again, to guard the post for Nigeria. Rufai presently lives in Nigeria where he organizes football clinics in selected cities to help discover talented goalkeepers. He will be best remembered as one of the best goalkeepers Nigeria ever had, having earned the respect of fellow players and the Confederation of African Football who named him the 10th best CAF Best Goalkeeper of the century.
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