{"id":231800,"date":"2025-07-04T09:54:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-04T09:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abianewscentral.com.ng\/tributes-pour-in-for-dodo-mayana\/"},"modified":"2025-07-04T09:54:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-04T09:54:11","slug":"tributes-pour-in-for-dodo-mayana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/tributes-pour-in-for-dodo-mayana\/","title":{"rendered":"Tributes Pour In For Dodo Mayana"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Tributes Pour In For Dodo Mayana<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Tributes have continued to pour in from across the world for former Super Eagles shot stopper, Peter Rufai, who died on Thursday during a brief illness at 61.<\/p>\n<p>President Bola Ahmed <a href=\"https:\/\/abianewscentral.com.ng\/tinubu\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tinubu <\/a>condoled the family and Nigerians in general and said, \u201cI recall with fond memories the heroic contributions of Peter Rufai in the historic victory of the Super Eagles at the 1994 edition of the Africa Cup of Nations in Tunisia as the first-choice goalkeeper. He was also a strong member of the team at the 1998 World Cup in France,\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Former Nigeria Vice President, Atiku Abubakar also said, \u201cIt is with deep sorrow that I mourn the passing of our legendary national team goalkeeper, Peter Rufai, popularly known as Dodo Mayana. His death is a profound loss to the global football community. I extend my heartfelt condolences to his immediate family and the Nigerian football community. May his soul rest in eternal peace. Peter Rufai\u2019s remarkable contributions to the beautiful game will always be remembered, and he will be sorely missed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Former Anambra State governor and presidential candidate in the last general elections, Peter Obi said, \u201cRufai stood tall for Nigeria, especially during our 1994 AFCON victory and the 1994 FIFA World Cup that shook the world. He gave us moments we will never forget and saves that lifted the whole nation<em>\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201cForever in our hearts, Dodo Mayana. We mourn the passing of legendary Super Eagles goalkeeper, Peter Rufai. Your legacy lives on between the sticks and beyond. Rest well\u201d, the NFF wrote on X.<\/p>\n<p><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-215353\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nationalambassadorngr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Peter-Rufai-young.jpg?resize=251%2C201&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"251\" height=\"201\" data-eio=\"l\"\/><\/noscript><\/p>\n<p>Former Eagles playmaker, Etim Esin who was his teammate in the 90s, said, \u201cOh oh God! Dodo Manyana is dead. This is a great loss. We played together; I can\u2019t imagine he\u2019s gone, this is so sad. My condolence to his family and may his soul rest in peace.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Super Eagles skipper and Kano Pillars forward, Ahmed Musa also paid tribute to the Peter Rufai, \u201cI can\u2019t believe I\u2019m typing this \u2013 a post to bid farewell to a true giant of Nigerian football, Peter Rufai. Your heroic reflexes and unwavering presence between the posts brought us moments of pride on the world stage. May your spirit continue to inspire future generations of Super Eagles. Though you\u2019ve left us, your legacy soars higher than any trophy. Fly high, DODO MAYANA \u2014 the nation mourns a hero.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Peter Rufai was born on August 24, 1963, and made his debut for the then Green Eagles in a friendly match in December 1981, and won the Africa Cup of Nations silver in 1984 and 1988, and played a significant role as Nigeria won the 1994 AFCON. Dodo Mayana also played at the 1994 and 1998 World Cup.<\/p>\n<p><h3 class=\"jp-relatedposts-headline\"><em>Related<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/nationalambassadorngr.com\/tributes-pour-in-for-dodo-mayana\/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=tributes-pour-in-for-dodo-mayana\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tributes Pour In For Dodo Mayana Tributes have continued to pour in from across the world for former Super Eagles shot stopper, Peter Rufai, who died on Thursday during a brief illness at 61. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu condoled the family and Nigerians in general and said, \u201cI recall with fond memories the heroic contributions [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":231801,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[176],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-231800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-abia"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}