Obafemi Martins

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Personal information
Obafemi Martins
Full name	Obafemi Akinwunmi Martins
Date of birth	October 28, 1984 (age 22)
Place of birth	Lagos, Nigeria
Height	1.7 m (5 ft 7 in)
Nickname	Oba
Playing position	Striker
Club information
Current club	Newcastle United
Number	9
Youth clubs
2000-2001 2001-2002	A.C. Reggiana 1919 Internazionale
Senior clubs¹
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
2002-2006 2006-	Internazionale Newcastle United	88 (28) 28 (11)
National team²
2004-	Nigeria	14 (11)
¹ Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 18:48, 7 April 2007 (UTC). ² National team caps and goals correct as of 4 March 2007. * Appearances (Goals)

Obafemi Akinwunmi Martins (born October 28, 1984 in Lagos, Nigeria (IPA: [əʊbə'femi ækɪn'wʊnmi 'mɑː(r)tɪnz]) is a Nigerian football player who plays as a striker for the Nigeria national team, and for the English club Newcastle United.

1 Biography
2 Career statistics
3 Honours
4 Trivia
5 Notes
6 External links

[edit] Biography

Martins is known for his exceptional pace, powerful shots and acrobatic goal celebrations. Although relatively short, Martins has a good leap and it has been reported that he used to be very good at the long jump and high jump.^[1] Martins is left footed, however, since joining Newcastle he has shown that he is also more than capable of scoring with both feet and his head.

Martins has two brothers that also play football. His elder brother, Oladipupo Olarotini Martins, is on the books of Serbian side FK Partizan, whilst his younger brother John Abiola Martins plays football in Nigeria.

[edit] Internazionale

In 2000, Martins was involved in the youth setup at AC Reggiana, and moved into Inter's youth squad the following season in a €750,000 deal. With the youth squad he scored 23 goals that season, helping them win the Italian Under-18 title.

He became a part of the Inter first team in 2002 making his debut against Parma in December of that year. However he did not fully break into the first team until the following season. It was in 2003 that he fully made his mark with the club in the UEFA Champions League, first scoring a crucial goal against Bayer 04 Leverkusen to secure Inter's place in the quarter finals of the competition. Martins then scored another goal in the semi-final of the competition against Milanese rivals AC Milan, although Inter were eventually defeated on the away goals rule.

Martins signed a long-term contract with the Italian giants in 2005 which ran until 2010 and was worth around €2.5 million annually.^[2] His good form for Inter continued and he was called to play in the 2006 African Nations Cup for Nigeria.

Although he had some success with Inter, scoring 28 goals for the club in 88 league games as well as 11 goals in European competitions, the young Nigerian was sold to make some profit in August 2006. This was due to Inter bringing in two new strikers; first Argentinian Hernán Crespo was brought in on loan from Chelsea and then Zlatan Ibrahimović was bought by Inter from recently relegated Juventus.^[3]

During his time at Inter he picked up an accolade at the 2004 Italian Media Awards held in Rome. He was awarded 'Most Entertaining Interviewee', fighting off stiff competition from Taribo West and Ron Atkinson.

[edit] Newcastle United

With Martins handing in a transfer request in August 2006, a number of English clubs were alerted to his availability. From the onset, Newcastle were thought to be the front runners and it was no surprise when on August 24, 2006 Martins completed his move to Newcastle United from Inter for £10.1 million (€15 million), signing a five year deal. He was paraded in front of the Geordie fans before their UEFA cup tie against FK Ventspils, it was later confirmed he would be taking the famous number 9 shirt, replacing club-record goalscorer Alan Shearer who had occupied it for the previous 10 years.

Martins made his debut on August 27, in the 2-0 defeat to Aston Villa, in which he was stretchered off with a knee injury. It turned out that Martins suffered a severe dead leg and internal bleeding. His unremarkable first few appearances for Newcastle caused manager Glenn Roeder to speak out in his defence.^[4]

However, on Sunday 17 September 2006, Martins scored his first goal for Newcastle. It was the second goal in a 2-0 victory over West Ham United at Upton Park, and from there his goalscoring form began to improve steadily.

Reports on January 11, 2007 indicated that Chelsea were considering making an offer for Martins services after his impressive form. These reports were later rubbished by Glenn Roeder and Martins himself.^[5]

On January 14, 2007 in a 2-3 away win against Tottenham Hotspur Martins' 20 yard shot flew into the net. This strike was clocked by Sky Sports at a speed of 84mph, making it the ninth hardest shot ever recorded in football.^[6] This was his tenth goal for Newcastle. Martins has now scored 17 goals from 40 appearances for Newcastle.

[edit] International career

Martins has scored 11 goals in 14 appearances for Nigeria. He was a part of the Nigerian team that finished third in the 2006 African Cup of Nations. Martins scored two goals in the competition, both coming against Senegal in the first round.

His future for the national team has been placed in doubt on numerous occasions after separate incidents of controversy. In August, 2006 the Nigerian FA website mistakenly had his date of birth down as May 1, 1978. This would have made him twenty-eight years of age, rather than twenty-one. The Nigerian FA soon confirmed that it had been an administrative error and apologised for the confusion it had caused. However Martins threatened to quit playing for the national team after the blunder had initially put his move to Newcastle in doubt.^[7]

On February 6, 2007 he did not turn up for the 4-1 friendly defeat against Ghana, despite being ordered to play. He later explained his absence was due to the fact he had travelled to Lagos in order to visit his sick mother.^[8] The Nigerian caretaker coach Augustine Eguavoen was furious with Martins and threatened to ban him from the national team.^[9] On February 14, 2007 Martins apologised for missing the game but said he believed his mother's health was more important. He also said that he will be available to play for Nigeria in the future.^[10] He made his return to the national side on March 24, 2007, playing the full 90 minutes against Uganda in an African Cup of Nations Qualifying match.

[edit] Career statistics

(correct as of 18 March 2007)

Club	Season	League			Cup^[11]			Europe			Total
Club	Season	Apps	Goals	Assists	Apps	Goals	Assists	Apps	Goals	Assists	Apps	Goals	Assists
Inter Milan	2002-03	4	1	-	2	0	-	4	2	-	10	3	-
	2003-04	25	7	-	3	1	-	9	3	-	37	11	-
	2004-05	31	11	-	6	6	-	8	5	-	45	22	-
	2005-06	28	9	-	6	2	-	8	2	-	42	13	-
Newcastle United	2006-07	27	11	4	4	0	1	9	6	0	40	17	5
Career totals											174	66	5