At the Moses Mabhida Stadium, Durban on June 22, 2010,
Yakubu notably missed an open goal from three metres against South Korea in the
last Group game but later went on to score a penalty.
Aiyegbeni ‘s penalty made sure that Nigeria earned a 2–2
draw, but this was not enough for his team to progress out of the group stages.
Speaking on Wednesday during an interview tagged Live with
Yak on NationTV, Aiyegbeni said he has no apology for the miss.
He said, “I won’t apologise at all. Why should I? I have
scored so many goals for Nigeria too. I have sacrificed a lot for the country.
Did anyone apologise to me?
“I cannot apologise because it wasn’t a deliberate miss. I
seriously wanted to score. But it wasn’t to be. So many strikers have missed
chances too and nobody apologise so I won’t.”
In May 2020, the 38-year-old revealed that Nigerians still
send him messages to express annoyance over the miss.
“I felt bad when I missed it but people still talk about it
and are saying if I had scored, we should have gone to the next round,” the
former Everton forward said in May 2020.
“Even if I scored, are we going to win the World Cup? That I
am not sure of.
“I have scored so many goals for Nigeria, even when people
thought we will never qualify for the World Cup, I stood up to be counted.
“I have always done my best to help the country but it’s
weird that people still send me messages till date even on social media about
that miss.
“They would write things like ‘I never forget o, I never
forget the goal wey you miss o’ [I haven’t forgotten the goal you missed], ‘we
no go forgive you o’ [we won’t forgive you], etc and I would be like wow.”
Aiyegbeni, who is Nigeria’s third highest goalscorer with
scored 21 goals in 57 appearances for the Super Eagles, retired from football
in 2017.
He started his career with Julius Berger FC in Lagos as a
teenager in the Nigerian Premier League. He was later loaned to Portuguese club
Gil Vicente. He made 250 appearances in the English Premier League, playing for
Everton FC, Middlesborough FC, Portsmouth FC, and Blackburn.
He made four African Cup of Nations appearances for Nigeria
and also played at the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.
Meanwhile, Yakubu has no interest in coaching the national
team or any team in particular, saying he is available to render any other
assistance to the Nigerian Football Federation except coaching.
When asked if he would consider coaching, Yakubu, who is the
third highest scorer in the history of the Super Eagles said: “At this point, I
am not thinking about coaching the national team.”
“I don’t even have a coaching license because I am not
interested in coaching but if the federation needs my help, they have my
numbers.”