Michael Obiku

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Personal information
Mike Obiku
Full name	Michael Obiku
Date of birth	September 24, 1968 (1968-09-24) (age 39)
Place of birth	Warri, Nigeria
Height	1.84 m (6 ft +¹⁄₂ in)
Playing position	forward
Club information
Current club	retired
Senior clubs¹
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1986-1987 1987-1989 1989-1992 1992-1993 1994 1994-1996 1996-1997 1997-1998 1998-1999 1999-2000 2000-2001	Flash Flamingoes Iwuanyanwu Nationale Anorthosis Famagusta Feyenoord Rotterdam Helsingborgs IF Feyenoord Rotterdam Real Mallorca Avispa Fukuoka AZ Alkmaar Anorthosis Famagusta APOEL FC	29 (13) 40 (28) 69 (33) 37 (10) 14 (9) 34 (13) 26 (14) 25 (9) 13 (2) 21 (14) 0 (0)
National team²
1988-1993	Nigeria	0 (0)
¹ Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 25 May 2008. ² National team caps and goals correct as of May 6, 2007. * Appearances (Goals)

Michael ("Mike") Edirin Obiku (born 24 September 1968 in Warri) is a retired Nigerian football striker.

Currently, he is assistent coach at Sparta Rotterdam's youth team.

1 Club career
- 1.1 Memorable moments
2 International career
3 External links
4 References

[edit] Club career

Obiku started his career with Flash Flamingoes in his native Nigeria and earned a move to highfliers Iwuanyanwu Nationale. From there, he moved on to become very succesful in Cyprus. Then Feyenoord Rotterdam chairman Jorien van den Herik, who had a house on Cyprus, lured him to Rotterdam. On club level he won the Dutch Eredivisie in 1993 and the KNVB Cup in 1994, 1995 and 1996 with Feyenoord. He later became the first Nigerian to play in the J. League.In 1999-2000 he returned to Cyprus and to his favourite team Anorthosis Famagusta FC. He scored 13 goals and helped his club to win the Championship for 4rd time in a row in Cyprus. After so many years Obiku is still one of the legends of Anorthosis Famagusta FC and he is considered one of the all time best players who ever played not only for the club but also in Cyprus. The fans never forgot his first spell in the club in 1989-1992 scoring 36 goals and gave him the nick "Black Diamond".

[edit] Memorable moments

When Obiku scored for Feyenoord, he usually took off his shirt, threw it on the ground and danced around it. No matter snowy conditions. Once he threw his shirt in the crowd and had to beg a supporter to throw it back to proceed the match.

During a match against Willem II he jumped in the fences surrounding the pitch and injured his hands while grabbing the barb wire. He did play on but had to have treatment on his bleedy hands first.

On March 8 1995 he won over the Rotterdam supporters when he scored the golden goal in the KNVB Cup semi-finals against eternal rivals Ajax Amsterdam. Ajax won the Champions League that season but were finished off by Obiku thanks to a marvellous solo effort.

[edit] International career

He represented the Nigerian national team at the 1988 African Cup of Nations^[1], played in two World Cup qualifying matches^[2] and played 12 minutes at the 1988 Summer Olympics.^[3] He played his final international match in April 1993 against Ethiopia.