Ade Akinbiyi

Personal information
Full name	Adeola Peter Oluwatoyin Akinbiyi
Date of birth	10 October 1974 (1974-10-10) (age 35)
Place of birth	Hackney, England
Height	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Playing position	Forward
Club information
Current club	Notts County
Number	14
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps (Gls)†
1993–1997	Norwich City	049 0000(3)
1994	→ Hereford United (loan)	004 0000(2)
1994	→ Brighton & Hove Albion	007 0000(4)
1997–1998	Gillingham	063 000(28)
1998–1999	Bristol City	047 000(21)
1999–2000	Wolverhampton Wanderers	037 000(16)
2000–2002	Leicester City	058 000(11)
2002–2003	Crystal Palace	024 0000(3)
2003	→ Stoke City (loan)	004 0000(2)
2003–2005	Stoke City	059 000(17)
2005–2006	Burnley	039 000(16)
2006–2007	Sheffield United	018 0000(3)
2007–2009	Burnley	070 000(10)
2009	Houston Dynamo	014 0000(0)
2009–	Notts County	005 0000(0)
National team‡
1999	Nigeria	001 0000(0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 2 December 2009. † Appearances (Goals). ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 30 March 2009

Adeola Peter Oluwatoyin "Ade" Akinbiyi (born 10 October 1974) is a professional footballer who currently plays for Notts County.

Born in England, Akinbiyi qualifies to play for the Nigeria national football team through his parents, and earned one cap for Nigeria.

Akinbiyi is currently Leicester City's record signing (£5.5 million). As of September 2009, he has moved for a total of more than £11.5 million during his career.^[1] He was voted the sixth worst striker to have played in the Premier League by the Daily Mail in October 2009.^[2]

[edit] Career

[edit] Early career

Akinbiyi has had a much-travelled career with many different clubs with transfer fees totalling almost £16 million. He began his career as a trainee at Norwich City, where he worked his way up into the first team in 1992. He made his début on 3 November 1993 as a substitute against German giants Bayern Munich in the UEFA Cup. The match ended 1–1, meaning that Norwich won the second round tie 3–2 on aggregate and went on to face Inter Milan, who eliminated them.^[3]

He was loaned to Hereford United and Brighton & Hove Albion before completing a £250,000 move to Gillingham in 1997. He scored 29 goals in 67 league and cup games for the Gills and was quickly transferred to newly-promoted Division One side Bristol City for £1.2m.

[edit] Big money moves

Stiker's stock continued to rise and after scoring 21 goals for Bristol City in the 1998-99 season, Wolverhampton Wanderers paid a club record £3.5million for him in September 1999 in an attempt to replace Robbie Keane. He played only one season at Molineux, finishing as the club's top goalscorer with 16 goals but Wolves just missed out on a playoff place.

Ten months after arriving at Wolves, he departed to Premier League club Leicester City for £5.5 million,^[4] a decision he would later regret.^[5] Brought in as a replacement for Emile Heskey (who left for Liverpool for £11 million), he failed to live up to expectations, scoring only 11 goals in 58 league appearances and Leicester were relegated in bottom place at the end of his second season at Filbert Street. One particularly poor performance against Liverpool led to The Sun newspaper headlining its sports section with a picture of him described as "The League's Worst Striker". Some Leicester fans called him 'Ade Akinbadbuyi'.^{[citation needed]}

His was subsequenttly transferred to Crystal Palace £2.2m in February 2002. On arrival he took the surprisingly high number 55 shirt, adding a very small plus sign between the numbers to signify his preferred shirt number, 10, which was already taken. Having scored just one goal in 14 league and cup appearances, he was loaned out to Stoke City in 2003. He scored twice – the second goal coming in the last game of the 2002-03 season, when the Potters beat Reading 1-0 to retain their second tier status. He later joined on a permanent basis, on a free transfer.

[edit] Burnley and Sheffield United

Akinbiyi completed a £600,000 move to Burnley in February 2005, but marked his debut by getting sent off within two minutes for head butting Sunderland player George McCartney. After netting 16 times for the Clarets, he moved to Sheffield United for a then club record £1.75 million in January 2006.^[6]

He scored on his debut for the Blades against Derby County, and endeared himself to fans by scoring in his first Steel City derby at Hillsborough. After winning promotion, Akinbiyi made only five appearances for the Blades in the Premier League in 2006. It was also reported that he was involved in a training ground bust-up with team-mate Claude Davis in October 2006 following a 2–0 defeat against Everton in which Davis had been sent off.^[7]

[edit] Return to Burnley

Akinbiyi was soon resold to Burnley in January 2007 for a fee of £650,000 with a further £100,000 to be paid in the summer of 2007.^[8] His second debut for the Clarets was more successful, scoring a goal against top flight Reading in the FA Cup.

During the rest of the 2006-07 season, Akinbiyi was not as successful as during his first spell at Turf Moor, scoring three goals. This was attributed by Steve Cotterill to Akinbiyi having spent too much time in the weights room at Sheffield United and as a result being too bulky.^[9] He was given the number nine shirt for the 2007-08 season but found himself behind Andy Gray and Robbie Blake as a first choice striker. Since going back to Burnley, Akinbiyi has lacked consistent form, finding goals harder to come by. His hard work and endeavour have made him a firm fans' favourite.^[10] During the 2008-09 season, his regular position on the bench was taken by youngster Jay Rodriguez, a player who he had been mentoring.^[10] However, Akinbiyi regained his place on the bench in the fifth round of the Carling Cup against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge and in the 69th minute he scored to make the game 1-1 and take it into extra time. Burnley won 5-4 on penalties. While at Burnley, Steve Cotterill, Burnley’s then manager, banned him from the gym. “I wasn’t playing at Sheffield so the only thing I was doing was weights. We didn’t even have reserve games and it was something to do. I put on a bit too much muscle and I lost about a yard of pace,” he says. “I try to stay away from the weights room now. I’m sort of addicted.”

Speaking in the run up to a league game aganist Leicester City, Akinbiyi said he 'regretted' his move to Leicester, saying that he wished he had spent another year at Wolves ^[11]

[edit] Houston Dynamo

On 26 March 2009, Akinbiyi was reported to be in talks about a move to the United States to join Major League Soccer club Houston Dynamo.^[12] On 30 March, Akinbiyi was officially unveiled as a Houston player.^[13] He made his MLS debut on 3 May, as a late substitute in a game against New England Revolution.^[14]

To make room on the roster for Luis Ángel Landín, the club's first Desginated Player, the Dynamo released Akinbiyi on 20 August 2009.^[15]

[edit] Notts County

After his release by Houston, Akinbiyi agreed terms with League Two side Notts County.^[1] He made his debut on 17 October 2009 in a 0–0 draw against Rotherham United, coming on as a substitute for Lee Hughes in the 82th minute.^[16]

[edit] International career

Born in Hackney, London to Nigerian parents, Akinbiyi qualified to play internationally for Nigeria, and through his birthplace for England. He was called up on three separate occasions for Nigeria, playing once in 1999 against Greece in London ^[17]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Ade Akinbiyi career stats at Soccerbase
• AdeAkinbiyi profile at burnleyfootballclub.com
• Career information at ex-canaries.co.uk
• If it's January, it must be time to send for Ade Akinbiyi