Aiyegbeni Yakubu is a professional football player, who was born on November 22, 1982 in Benin City, Nigeria. Being a powerful-paced striker, he has been nicknamed “The Yak” and is also the highest scoring African player in the Premier League history. Aiyegbeni Yakubu is married to Yvonne Ikhana, daughter of Kadiri Ikhana, Nigerian football coach.Having gained 43 international caps, he has scored 16 goals for the Nigerian national football team.
Aiyegbeni Yakubu began his club career in Julius Berger, a youth club, in 1998 and moved to an Israeli club, Maccabi Haifa in 1999. He was sent on a loan (1999-2000) to play for Hapoel Kfar Saba, where he played 36 matches and scored 24 goals. Honing his football skills with every match he participated, Aiyegbeni Yakubu helped Maccabi Haifa to win the Israeli Premier League consecutively two seasons (2000-01 and 2001-02). With his brilliant performances, the team became the runners-up in the Israel State Cup (2001-02) and won the Toto Cup (2002). Aiyegbeni Yakubu scored two hat-tricks, one against Olympiacos, Greek football club, and the other against Manchester United in the 2002-2003 season of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Champions League.
Aiyegbeni Yakubu came to play on a loan spell to Portsmouth but became a regular member of the team in January 2003. As a loaned player, he played 13 matches and scored 7 goals for the team. In the 2002-2003 season, he scored 4 goals for Portsmouth to win 5-1 against Middlesbrough. His commendable performances and scoring rate helped Portsmouth to win the Football League Division One title (2002-2003). Aiyegbeni Yakubu scored the goal which helped the team to end the match in a draw (1-1) against the Bolton Wanderers and secured Premiership in the 2004-2005 season. Between 2003 and 2005, he was a consistent player scoring 36 goals in 78 matches for the Portsmouth team.
Between 2005 and 2007, as a Middlesbrough player, Aiyegbeni Yakubu played 103 matches for the team and scored 35 goals. With him in the squad, Middlesbrough became the UEFA runner-up in 2005-2006.
In August 2007, he joined Everton and chose shirt number 22, setting this number as a goal-scoring target for his first season. On September 1, 2007, he scored his first goal for the team, when he played against the Bolton Wanderers at the Reebok Stadium and lead the team to a 2-1 win. In December 2007, Aiyegbeni Yakubu scored all the goals (a hat-trick) for Everton to win (3-0) against Fulham. By scoring a brace for Everton against Newcastle United in a 3-1 victory at Goodison Park, he helped the team to finish 5th in the league and a place in the 2008-2009 UEFA Cup competition. Netting 21 goals of the set 22 for Everton in the 2007-2008 season, he set a personal record of scoring the highest number of goals in a single season. With Aiyegbeni Yakubu playing for them, Everton reached the Carling Cup semi-finals in 2007-2008.
While playing for Everton, in the 2008-2009 season, Aiyegbeni Yakubu scored his 100th goal in a premier league game at West Bromwich Albion.
