Obafemi Martins

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Obafemi Martins
Personal information
Full name Obafemi Akinwunmi Martins
Date of birth 28 October 1984 (1984-10-28) (age 23)
Place of birth    Lagos, Nigeria
Height 1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)
Playing position Striker
Club information
Current club Newcastle United
Number 9
Youth clubs
2000
2000–2001
2001–2002		 F.C. Ebedei
Reggiana
Internazionale
Senior clubs1
Years Club App (Gls)*
2002–2006
2006–		 Internazionale
Newcastle United		 88 (28)
64 (20)   
National team2
2004– Nigeria 21 (13)

1 Senior club appearances and goals
counted for the domestic league only and
correct as of 18:52, 5 May 2008 (UTC).
2 National team caps and goals correct
as of 15:10, 27 January 2008 (UTC).
* Appearances (Goals)

Obafemi Akinwunmi Martins (born 28 October 1984 in Lagos) (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.

Contents

Biography

Martins is known for his exceptional pace, great agility, 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. Martins is left footed; however, since joining Newcastle he has shown that he is also more than capable of scoring with both feet, and also his head. He is also a firm favourite with the fans. Martins has two brothers who also play football. His elder brother, Oladipupo Olarotini Martins, is on the books of Serbian side FK Partizan, whilst his younger brother John Ronan Martins plays football in Nigeria.

The name 'Obafemi' translates literally to 'the king loves me' in the Yoruba language [1].

Club career

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 Inter 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 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 the Swede Zlatan Ibrahimović was bought by Inter from recently relegated Juventus.[3]

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]

Martins with teammate Nicky Butt in 2007
Martins with teammate Nicky Butt in 2007

However, on Sunday September 17, 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 84 mph (135 km/h), making it unofficially the ninth hardest shot ever recorded in football according to the Guardian website.[6] This was his tenth goal for Newcastle. Martins ended his first season on Tyneside with 17 goals in 46 games.

International career

Martins has scored 13 goals in 21 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 match against Uganda in an African Cup of Nations Qualifying match and won.

Following the end of Nigeria's 2008 African Cup of Nations (qualification) campaign, Nigeria faced Mexico in Juarez for a friendly match. Martins scored two goals in a 2-2 draw. On November 17, 2007, Martins captained Nigeria for the first time, in a friendly match against Australia for his nineteenth appearance.

Career statistics

(correct as of 5 May 2008)

Club Season League Cup[11] Europe Total
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 33 11 4 4 0 1 9 6 0 46 17 5
2007-08 31 9 1 2 1 - 0 0 0 33 10 1
Career totals 213 76 6

Honours

Flag of Nigeria Individual:

Flag of Italy Internazionale:

Flag of England Newcastle United:

Notes

  1. ^ Meaning of Obafemi in Nigerian.name
  2. ^ "Martins Signs New Inter Deal", Sky Sports, 2005-12-19. Retrieved on 2007-03-04. 
  3. ^ "Martins asks to leave", Sky Sports, 2006-08-07. Retrieved on 2007-03-04. 
  4. ^ "Be patient with Martins - Roeder", BBC Sport, 2006-09-11. Retrieved on 2007-03-04. 
  5. ^ "Martins slams Chelsea links", Sky Sports, 2007-01-11. Retrieved on 2007-03-04. 
  6. ^ "The hardest recorded shot in football - ever", The Guardian, 2007-02-14. Retrieved on 2007-03-04. 
  7. ^ "NFA embarrasses Obafemi Martins, ridicules Nigeria", Vanguard, 2006-08-04. Retrieved on 2007-03-04. 
  8. ^ "Martins no-show for sick mother", BBC Sport, 2007-02-07. Retrieved on 2007-03-04. 
  9. ^ "Nigeria get tough on Martins", BBC Sport, 2007-02-09. Retrieved on 2007-03-04. 
  10. ^ "Martins sorry for Nigeria no-show", BBC Sport, 2007-02-14. Retrieved on 2007-03-04. 
  11. ^ Includes Coppa Italia, Italian Super Cup, FA Cup, League Cup and FA Community Shield

External links

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v • d • e
Newcastle United F.C. – current squad

1 Given • 3 José Enrique • 4 Rozehnal • 5 Emre • 6 Caçapa • 7 Barton • 9 Martins • 10 Owen • 11 Duff • 13 Harper • 14 N'Zogbia • 16 Milner • 17 Smith • 20 Geremi • 21 Beye • 22 Butt • 23 Ameobi • 25 Faye • 27 Taylor • 30 Edgar • 34 Forster • 35 Tozer • 36 Viduka • 38 LuaLua • 39 Carroll • 40 Krul • Manager: Keegan
Awards
Preceded by
Mido		 CAF Young Player of the Year
2003, 2004		 Succeeded by
John Obi Mikel