Aiyegbeni Yakubu

Aiyegbeni Yakubu (born November 22, 1982 in Benin City, Nigeria) is a Nigerian football (soccer) player, who currently plays for Middlesbrough F.C. He weighs 81 kg and is 1.85 meters in height.

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A striker, Yakubu started his career at Israeli team Maccabi Haifa F.C., 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 F.C. in January 2003.

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His goals helped fire Portsmouth to the Division One (now Football League Championship) title, scoring at a rate of one goal every two games.

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During the club's debut Premiership season, during which they finished 13th, he scored 16 times in 35 starts, a massive return for a striker at a small club. 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.

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He has been capped several times for Nigeria, and is a regular in the national team.

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After the 2004-05 season, he transferred from Pompey to Boro for a ?7 million fee.

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1982: 1982 is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar....

Benin City: Benin, a city (1991 est. pop. 203,000) in Edo State, southern Nigeria, is a port on the Benin River. Benin is the center of Nigeria’s rubber industry, but processing palm nuts for oil is still an important traditional industry....

Nigeria: The Federal Republic of Nigeria is a country in West Africa. It is the most populous country in Africa. It borders Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, Niger in the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the south. Major cities include the capital Abuja, the former capital Lagos, Ibadan, Osog...