YAKUBU AIYEGBENI

'Yakubu Aiyegbeni' (born November 22 1982 in Benin City, Nigeria), often known as 'Yakubu', is a Nigerian football player, who currently plays for Everton in the English Premier League.

Contents

Club career

International career

Career data

Honours

Maccabi Haifa

Portsmouth

Middlesbrough

Notes and references

External links

Club career

A powerful striker, Yakubu started his career at Israeli team Maccabi Haifa, where he won two championships and had a phenomenal scoring record, both in the domestic and international competitions - breaking several club records. He came to England and trained with Derby County but could not obtain a work permit at the time. After scoring 7 goals in 8 European Cup appearances (including a hat-trick against Olympiakos) in the 2002/03 season UEFA Champions League, Yakubu moved to English club Portsmouth in January 2003.
His goals helped fire Portsmouth to the Division One (now Football League Championship) title, scoring at a rate of one goal every two games.
During the club's debut Premier League season, in which they finished 13th, he scored 16 times in 35 starts, including 4 in a single game as Portsmouth defeated Middlesbrough 5-1. During the summer of 2004 several other Premiership teams were interested in purchasing Yakubu for up to £10 million, but he chose to stay and help consolidate the club's Premiership position.
After the 2004-05 season, he transferred from Pompey to Middlesbrough for a £7.5 million fee. In one of his most memorable matches since joining Boro, Yakubu (Joint Man Of The Match with Fabio Rochemback) scored the third goal in a rampant 3-0 win over runaway Premiership leaders Chelsea, ensuring their second defeat of the season. Middlesbrough also had a memorable 4-1 home win against Manchester United, and a 2-1 win over Arsenal, with Yakubu scoring in both games.
Yakubu scored the only goal of the game with a penalty in the first leg of the UEFA Cup last 16 round at home against A.S. Roma, giving Middlesbrough a 1-0 victory. Middlesbrough later went through on away goals, despite losing 1-2 in the Stadio Olimpico.
His transfer from Portsmouth to Middlesbrough in July 2005 is one of those about which the Stevens inquiry report in June 2007 expressed concerns because of the lack of co-operation from agents Pinhas Zahavi and Barry Silkman^[1].
Throughout the close season Yakubu was constantly linked with moves away from the Riverside. The likes of Portsmouth, Manchester City and Everton were all reported to be lining up bids for the frontman.
Yakubu completed a move to Everton in August 2007 for a club record fee of £11.25m after being granted a work permit.^[2] He scored 10 minutes into his debut for the club, the first goal in a 2-1 win against Bolton Wanderers, at the Reebok Stadium on 1 September 2007. Yakubu turned down the opportunity to wear the number 9 shirt at Everton, as he wanted his number 22 shirt to signify how many goals he was going to get for the season.

International career

He has been capped several times for Nigeria, and was a regular in the national team. At the end of 2005, shortly before the African Nations Cup preparation camp for the Nigerian national team was about to start, Yakubu rejected the call-up to the camp opting to play an important role for Middlesbrough, meaning that he was not selected for the 2006 Nations Cup.

Career data

★ Maccabi Haifa Youth team (1999)

★ Hapoel Kfar Saba (2000)

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★ A minor premier division club, played on loan

★ Maccabi Haifa (2001 - 2003)

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★ 24 domestic league goals in 50 appearances

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★ 8 domestic cup goals in 9 appearances

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★ 7 domestic European Cup goals in 12 appearances

★ Portsmouth F.C. (2002 - 2003)

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★ 7 Nationwide First Division goals in 14 appearances

★ Portsmouth F.C. (2003-2005)

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★ 29 Premier League goals in 67 appearances

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★ 3 FA Cup goals in 6 appearances

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★ 4 League Cup goals in 5 appearances

★ Middlesbrough F.C. (2005-2007 )

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★ 25 Premier League goals in 73 appearances

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★ 8 FA Cup goals in 15 appearances

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★ 0 League Cup goals in 2 appearances

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★ 2 UEFA cup goals in 14 appearances

★ Everton F.C. (2007- )

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★ 1 Premier League goals in 1 appearance

Honours

Maccabi Haifa

★ 'Israeli Premier League :'

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★ 'Winner:' 2000-01, 2001-02

★ 'Israel State Cup :'

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★ 'Runner-up:' 2001-02

★ 'Toto Cup :'

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★ 'Winner:' 2002

Portsmouth

★ 'Football League Division One :'

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★ 'Winner:' 2002-03

Middlesbrough

★ 'UEFA Cup :'

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★ 'Runner-up:' 2005-06

Notes and references

★ [1]
1. What Stevens said about each club
2. BLUES SIGN YAKUBU

External links

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