The ECHO’s Chris Beesley continues his daily series of articles on Everton and the World Cup running throughout the tournament in Qatar.
Just a few weeks after starring for Nigeria in his country’s World Cup debut, Daniel Amokachi was arriving to great fanfare at Goodison Park as Everton’s record signing. Despite being Africa’s most-populous nation, Nigeria had never qualified for the World Cup finals until 1994 but they arrived with a bang in the USA.
On June 21, Amokachi and his Super Eagles team-mates proved to be the biggest stars in Dallas since J.R. Ewing when they defeated eventual semi-finalists Bulgaria 3-0 at the Cotton Bowl. Amokachi’s strike partner Rashidi Yakini, who died over a decade ago aged just 48, had the honour of scoring Nigeria’s first goal in the World Cup finals when he poked home from close range on 21 minutes and famously celebrated in the back of the net.
