Late Super Eagles Goal Keeper, Peter Rufai reveals origin of nickname “Dodo Mayana” in trending video

A video clip featuring former Super Eagles goalkeeper Peter Rufai has gone viral, showing him, prior to his passing, explaining the origin of his famous nickname, “Dodo Mayana.”

In the interview with “The Popular Side” podcast, Rufai revealed that the “Dodo” part of his moniker was bestowed upon him by the late goalkeeper Peter Fregene.

The “Mayana” portion, he explained, was acquired during a training session in Portugal.

Th late footballer said:

“While in a room with Peter Fregene, he calls me Dodo, that generation of 1980, 1981, 1982, I joined the camp in 1981. So from that moment, I was lucky to fall into the hands of Peter Fregene, in fact, practically all of them.

“Every morning, before training, you’d see me sitting in front of Emmanuel Okala’s door waiting for him to open his door so that I can take his boots and hold it to enter the bus. Then I will go to Peter Fregene, Best Ogedengbe, I’d pack all their boots and go to the bus so when they want to wear their boots, I give to them.

“After training, sometimes I want to go and meet them they tell me ‘No problem, their jersey has been put to laundry.’ Then I’d say ‘What about the boots?’ They’d say ‘Don’t worry.’ I kept doing this all through my stay in camp.

“While doing it, Peter Fregene started calling me Dodo because of the way he sees I follow him up in his goalkeeping. From that word Dodo that he started calling me, we got to Portugal. We were in Portugal training led by the Brazilian coach Otto Glória, while the session was going on in 1982, Peter Fregene finished, Best Ogedengbe entered the goal and finished his own action. There was one other goalkeeper, then I went in.

“During my own turn, we had about 30 balls lined out. All the 30 balls were being shot to the goal by the Brazilian coach and I was attempting all those balls so the fans loved the way I was going for the balls and I was putting to practice what I saw Peter Fregene and Best Ogedengbe do.

“When they blew the final whistle fans were shouting. I was hearing the shout but I didn’t know that they were for me. So all of a sudden, I heard Dodo and they pointed to the crowd and I turned and saw the people so I signalled that tomorrow we have training. I was made to understand that they were wondering why we stopped. So they said ‘Amaya?’ And I said ‘Amaya Dodo’ and they said again ‘Dodo Amaya’ and I said ‘Amayana Dodo.’

“In Portuguese language Amayana means tomorrow. So fans now picked it up. When they say Dodo Mayana, I will respond Mayana Dodo. So fans love it more than calling me Peter.” [CONTINUE READING HERE]>>>>