Nigeria: Forgive and Forget, Aiyegbeni Begs People

Daily Independent (Lagos)

17 June 2011

Yakubu Abdulrazak Aiyegbeni was born 1982 in Benin City. Known simply as Yakubu, he plays as a striker for Everton. He is nicknamed “The Yak”.

He started his career with Julius Berger FC in Lagos as a teenager in the Nigerian Premier League. He was later loaned to Gil Vicente. Israeli team, Maccabi Haifa, paid $300,000 for his services in 1999 and later loaned him for one season to Hapoel Kfar Saba. With Haifa, he won two championships and had an excellent scoring record with the club, 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 seven goals in eight European Cup appearances in the 2002-03 seasons UEFA Champions League, Yakubu moved to English club, Portsmouth, initially on loan for a fee of £400,000.

His goals helped fire Portsmouth to the Division One title, scoring at a rate of one goal every two games.

Following the club’s promotion to the Premier League, he was signed for £4million. In what was Portsmouth’s début season in the Premier League era they finished 13th, he scored 16 times in 35 starts, including four in a single game as Portsmouth defeated Middleborough 5-1 on the final day of the season. During the summer of 2004, several other Premiership teams were interested in Yakubu for up to £10 million, but he chose to stay and help consolidate the club’s Premiership position.

After the 2004-05 seasons, he transferred from Portsmouth to Middleborough for a £7.5 million fee.

Yakubu was again transferred to Everton in August 2007 for a fee of £11.25 million on a five-year deal. Shunning the traditional centre-forwards’ number 9, Yakubu asked to be assigned number 22, setting this number as a goal-scoring target for his first season, a feat he fell one goal short of achieving. He scored 11 minutes into his debut for the club, the first goal in a 2-1 win against Bolton Wanderers at Reebok Stadium in September 2007. His first “Yak”-trick came against Fulham in a 3-0 home league win in December 2007.

His doubled against Newcastle United in a 3-1 win at Goodison Park on the last day of the 2007-08 seasons and helped the Toffees clinch fifth place. In the 2008-09 UEFA Cup competition, he finished his first season with 15 Premier League goals to his name, and 21 goals in all competitions for Everton. Yakubu got his highest goal tally for a single season, and also became the first Everton player since Peter Beardsley to net 20 goals in a season.

Yakubu scored his 100th goal in English football in a league game at West Bromwich Albion. He continued his great start to the season with a goal against Standard Liège in the UEFA Cup. Yakubu joined Leicester City on loan until the end of the season on January 13 2011, with the possibility of a permanent deal. He made his debut and scored in a 1-1 draw against Preston North End on January 15 2011, followed by another goal in a 4-2 win over Millwall on January 22. In his international career Yakubu has scored 21 goals in his 57 appearances for Nigeria, beginning with a goal against Namibia on June 16 2001 in a Cup of Nations qualifier.

He scored in the last group game of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, leveling the scores against South Korea with a penalty some minutes after shamefully missing an opening goal opportunity, which would have given the Super Eagles a place in the 2010 FIFA World Cup finals. He is currently the third highest international goals scorer for Nigeria.

In 2008 Yakubu married Yvonne Lameen Ikhana, the daughter of former Nigerian international football player, Kadiri Ikhana. Yakubu and Yvonne have a daughter Kayla.

Aiyegbeni who was one of the stars that featured in Nwankwo Kanu’s testimonial match was remorseful as he apologized to the fans for shamefully failing to tuck in a goal bound ball behind the South Korean goalkeeper in South Africa. In this interview with Senior Correspondent, Uzor Odigbo, he said “I missed a chance to score, for me I just want to say I am sorry about it. They should forgive and forget and let us move on.” He also talked about his expectations at Everton, Super Eagles and his readiness to play for the national team again.

AllAfrica – All the Time