Ade Akinbiyi

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Personal information
Ade Akinbiyi
Full name	Adeola Peter Oluwatoyin Akinbiyi
Date of birth	October 10, 1974 (age 32)
Place of birth	Hackney, London, England
Height	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Playing position	Striker
Club information
Current club	Burnley
Number	20
Senior clubs¹
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1993-1997 1994 1994 1997-1998 1998-1999 1999-2000 2000-2002 2002-2003 2003 2003-2005 2005-2006 2006-2007 2007-	Norwich City → Hereford United (loan) → Brighton & Hove Albion (loan) Gillingham Bristol City Wolves Leicester City Crystal Palace → Stoke City (loan) Stoke City Burnley Sheffield United Burnley	49 (3) 4 (2) 7 (4) 63 (28) 47 (21) 37 (16) 58 (11) 24 (3) 4 (2) 59 (17) 39 (16) 18 (3) 12 (1)
National team²
1999	Nigeria	1 (0)
¹ Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 31/3/2007. ² National team caps and goals correct as of 01/06/2006. * Appearances (Goals)

Adeola (Ade) Peter Oluwatoyin Akinbiyi (born October 10, 1974 in Hackney, London) is an England born Nigerian footballer. He is a striker for Burnley in the Championship.

Ade has had a colourful career with many different clubs. He began his career in 1992 at Norwich City and was loaned to Hereford and Brighton & Hove Albion before completing a £250,000 move to Gillingham in 1997. He scored 29 goals in 67 league and cup games and was quickly transferred to Bristol City for £1.2m.

His stock continued to rise and after scoring 21 goals in 47 league appearances for Bristol City he completed a £3.5m move to Wolverhampton Wanderers in 1999. The year after that, he made his debut in the English Premier League with Leicester City.

Despite costing £5m, he managed to score only 11 goals in 58 league appearances for the club, resulting in a £2.2m transfer to Crystal Palace in Division One, where he wore the number 55 shirt - one of the highest numbers ever worn by any player in English football.

Having scored just one goal in 14 league and cup appearances, he was loaned out to Stoke in 2003. He scored twice - the second goal coming in the last game of the 2002-03 season, when The Potters won 1-0 against Reading to seal their Division One (now 'The Championship') status. He later joined on a permanent basis, on a free transfer, and became a cult hero with the Stoke City crowd. He owes a large debt to the club for ressurecting his career after re gaining his self confidence.

He completed a £600,000 move to Burnley getting sent off on his debut within two minuites for headbutting George McCartney ^[1]of Sunderland. He then moved in January, 2006 to Sheffield United for a then club record £1.75 million^[2].

He scored on his debut for the Blades against Derby County, and on February 18, 2006, Akinbiyi scored in his first Steel City derby at Hillsborough.

It was reported that Akinbiyi was involved in a training ground bust-up with team-mate Claude Davis in October 2006 following a 2-0 defeat against Everton in which Davis had been sent off.

In all, Akinbiyi made only five appearances for the Blades in the Premiership in 2006 and, on 1 January 2007, he returned to Burnley for a fee of £650,000 with a further £100,000 to be paid in the summer of 2007^[3]. His second debut for the Clarets was more successful, scoring a goal against Premiership side Reading.

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Burnley F.C. - Current Squad
1 Coyne \| 2 Thomas \| 3 Harley \| 4 McGreal \| 5 Coughlan \| 6 Duff \| 7 J. O'Connor \| 8 Mahon \| 9 Jones \| 10 Gray \| 11 Elliott \| 12 Jensen \| 14 G. O'Connor \| 15 Branch \| 16 McCann \| 17 Lafferty \| 18 Djemba-Djemba \| 19 Spicer \| 20 Akinbiyi \| 21 McVeigh \| 22 Foster \| 24 Caldwell \| 25 Guðjónsson \| Manager: Cotterill