Yakubu Aiyegbeni

Yakubu Aiyegbeni (born 22 November 1982 in Benin City), generally known simply as Yakubu, is a Nigerian footballer who currently plays as a striker for Everton. His nickname is "The Yak".

Club career

Early career

A striker, Yakubu started his career with Julius Berger FC in Lagos as a teenager in the Nigerian Premier League. He was later loaned to Gil Vicente.

Israeli team Maccabi Haifa paid $300,000 US for his services in 1999 and they loaned him for one season to Hapoel Kfar Saba. He was close to move to Dynamo Kyiv on a loan but the deal never occurred. With Haifa, he won two championships and had an excellent scoring record with the club, both in the domestic and international competitions, breaking several club records. He came to England and trained with Derby County but could not obtain a work permit at the time. After scoring seven goals in eight European Cup appearances (including a hat-trick against Olympiakos and a penalty in the 3-0 win over Manchester United) in the 2002–03 season UEFA Champions League, Yakubu moved to English club Portsmouth, initially on loan for a fee of £400k.

Portsmouth

His goals helped fire Portsmouth to the Division One title, scoring at a rate of one goal every two games.

In the January prior to the club's promotion to the Premier League, he was signed for £400,000. In what was Portsmouth's début season in the Premier League era they finished 13th, he scored 16 times in 35...
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