FORMER Benin Republic international and ex-Superligaen striker, Razak Omotoyossi, has died, aged 39.
His passing was confirmed on Tuesday, August 19, by Swedish club Helsingborgs IF, where he once starred.
“Helsingborgs IF is in mourning. We have received the news that our former player Razak Omotoyossi has passed away, 39 years old. Our thoughts are with his family and relatives. Rest in peace, Razak,” the club announced in a statement.
Omotoyossi’s journey from Lagos to Cotonou was shaped by an incident that altered the course of his career.
In 2003, while playing for Sunshine Stars, he was slapped with a five-year ban by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) after being accused of assaulting a referee in a league match against Enyimba.
However, Omotoyossi later revealed that it was a case of mistaken identity.
Speaking in a 2021 radio interview, he said a teammate had confronted the referee, but his own jersey number was wrongly submitted.
“There was an issue in the game and one of my teammates with jersey number walked up to the referee and had a hot argument with him,” he said.
“I wore jersey number 23 in that game and rather than submitting the name and number of the player involved, the referee submitted my number and without asking for my own side of the story, I was banned by the NFF which led to my movement to Benin Republic,” he was quoted to have said.
According to him, he was in line to be invited to the national team to participate at the 2005 U-20 World Cup but the incident led to his omission.
“It was a big let down for me because I never did anything wrong but was accused wrongly, which led to the federation banning me,” he added.
The sanction forced him out of Nigeria and ultimately into the arms of Benin Republic, where he naturalised and began representing the national team.
He would go on to score 21 goals in 55 appearances for the Squirrels, becoming their second all-time highest scorer.
Beyond that, Omotoyossi played in Sweden, for Helsingborgs IF in 2007 and 2008, finishing as joint top scorer in the Allsvenskan in 2007.
He later joined FC Metz in France’s Ligue 1 before spells in Saudi Arabia (Al Nassr), Egypt (Zamalek), Syria, and Moldova.
His crowning moment came in the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, when he scored all four goals in Benin’s stunning 4–1 win over Togo, ending the campaign as joint top scorer alongside Samuel Eto’o.
Mustapha Usman is an investigative journalist with the International Centre for Investigative Reporting. You can easily reach him via: musman@icirnigeria.com. He tweets @UsmanMustapha_M