Sunday, November 26, 2017

Nigeria and Ex-Everton and Middlesbrough Striker, Yakubu, Hangs Up Boot

Former Nigeria international striker, Yakubu Ayegbeni, retired from football at the age of 35. Yakubu Aiyegbeni was born in Benin City, Edo State. A powerful central striker, he started his career with Julius Berger FC in Lagos 1997 as a teenager in the Nigerian Premier League. He was later loaned to Portuguese club Gil Vicente, Maccabi Haifa (Israel), then to Portsmouth (England).
In almost a decade in English football, between January 2003 and June 2012, Yakubu scored 114 times in 293 league appearances, mostly in the top flight.
He averaged nearly a goal every other game at Portsmouth, Middlesbrough, Everton, Leicester and Blackburn before joining Chinese club Guangzhou.
He returned to England for short spells at Reading in 2015, then Coventry City.
Having left Turkish side Kayserispor in 2016, Yakubu was training with National League side Boreham Wood early last season before being offered a contract at Coventry in February until the end of the season by then Sky Blues boss Russell Slade.
But after three substitute appearances under Slade, he did not figure when Mark Robins returned to the club as manager and was released in April.  As well as his 21 goals in 57 games for his country, the ever popular Yakubu scored 95 Premier League goals.

No comments: