Chairman of the League Management Company (LMC), Mallam Shehu Dikko, has revealed the league is close to the official unveiling of the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) Awards, which Golden Boot category is named after the late Rasheed Yekini.

Dikko said yesterday that the awards was approved by the LMC board at its meeting in June, adding the decision to name the golden boot trophy after one of Nigeria’s most prolific forwards was a route to immortalize the player, who scored a total of 37 goals in 58 appearances for the country and demonstrated exemplary character and commitment throughout his career.

“There is a broad plan to institute awards and honour outstanding players, officials, key stakeholders and fans in the league at the end of every season and there are a number of factors that led us to reach the decision to name one of these awards, that of the highest goal scorer after the late Rasheed Yekini.

“The awards is part of strategic plans of the LMC to create commercial value and additional revenues out of the assets inherent in the league property.

“We considered the aspiration factor which seeks to let the players know that they too can become national heroes if they achieve excellence and make a success of their career. It says to them that they too can become legends of the game and the society will honour them as we have sought to honour the late Yekini,” Dikko explained.

He disclosed that monetary incentive and other social benefits would be attached to the awards, adding that in the case of the highest goal scorer award, “we have received a request from the Rasheed Yekini Foundation to provide additional cash support to the winner and we