Yakubu Aiyegbeni

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Personal information
Yakubu
Full name	Yakubu Aiyegbeni
Date of birth	November 22, 1982 (age 24)
Place of birth	Benin City, Nigeria
Height	1.84 m (6 ft 0 in)
Nickname	The Yak
Playing position	Striker
Club information
Current club	Middlesbrough
Number	20
Senior clubs¹
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1998-1999 1999-2000 2000-2003 2003-2005 2005-present	Julius Berger Hapoel Kfar Saba Maccabi Haifa Portsmouth Middlesbrough	0 (0) 23 (6) 36 (24) 81 (36) 64 (25)
National team²
2000-present	Nigeria	19 (5)
¹ Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 18:08, 17 march 2007 (UTC). ² National team caps and goals correct as of 30 August 2006. * Appearances (Goals)

Yakubu Aiyegbeni (born November 22, 1982 in Benin City, Nigeria), often known as Yakubu, is a Nigerian football player, who currently plays for Middlesbrough.

1 Club career
2 International career
3 Career data
4 Honours
5 External links

[edit] 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. 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 Premiership season, in which they finished 13th, he scored 16 times in 35 starts. 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 (Man Of The Match) 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 the Yak scoring in all 3 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 Olimpico.

A stat which pays homage to "the Yak's" formidable scoring record is that, on his current goals to game ratio, he will overtake Alan Shearer and become the Premiership's highest ever scorer if he goes on to play as many games as the England legend.

[edit] International career

He has been capped several times for Nigeria, and is 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.

[edit] Career data

Maccabi Haifa Youth team (1999)
Hapoel Kfar Saba (2000)
- A second division club, played on loan
Maccabi Haifa (2001 - 2003)
- 24 domestic league goals in 50 appearances
- 8 domestic cup goals in 9 appearances
- 7 domestic European Cup goals in 11 appearances
Portsmouth F.C. (2002 - 2003)
- 7 Nationwide First Division goals in 14 appearances
Portsmouth F.C. (2003-2005)
- 28 Premier League goals in 67 appearances
- 3 FA Cup goals in 6 appearances
- 4 League Cup goals in 5 appearances
Middlesbrough F.C. (2005 - )
- 12 Premier League goals in 20 appearances
- 1 UEFA cup goals in 2 appearances