Yekini is one of Africa's all-time greats
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Rashidi Yekini has left Nigerian club Julius Berger less than two weeks before their African Cup Winners' Cup final against Etoile Sahel of Tunisia.
The 40-year-old former Nigeria striker said he refused to renew his contract with the club because of coach Fatai Amoo's "hatred and demeaning behaviour" towards him.
"I don't know what the coach has against me but I was no longer happy in Berger," said the former African Player of the Year from his home in Ibadan on Wednesday.
"The coach deliberately kept me on the bench to render me
unproductive because the club wanted to lay off some players."
But Amoo said Yekini, once his colleague in the national team, had become a disruptive influence on the team.
"Yekini was only being impatient and trying to impose himself on me. That to me is very selfish particularly from a player of his personality," he said.
Berger, who were runners-up in the last Nigerian championship, signed Yekini a year ago from Ivorian club Africa Sport, following the forward's spells with clubs in Portugal, Greece and Spain.
Yekini had a glittering international career as Nigeria's most prolific striker, scoring 12 goals in five editions of the biennial African Nations Cup tournament.
He won the African Player of the Year award in 1993 and
scored Nigeria's first-ever World Cup goal in 1994, when they made their debut in the United States.
Berger host Etoile Sahel in the first leg of the Cup Winners' Cup final on 15 November, with the return leg to be played on 6 December in Tunis.