A clip showing former Super Eagles goalkeeper Peter Rufai explaining before his death how he became known as Dodo Mayana has gone viral.
In an interview with The Popular Side, a podcast, Rufai said the word Dodo from the nickname Dodo Mayana was given to him by the late goalkeeper Peter Fregene, while the other half Mayana was picked up during training in Portugal.
His words, 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, youd see me sitting in front of Emmanuel Okalas 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, Id 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 Id say What about the boots? Theyd say Dont worry. I kept doing this all through my stay in camp.