Yakubu will go down as one of the most underrated goalscorers in Premier League history, having netted double digits in six different top-flight campaigns for four different clubs.
He will, however, go down in history as the most expensive Nigerian footballer of all time, having been purchased by Middlesbrough for £7.5 million in the summer of 2005 after impressing for two and a half years at Portsmouth.
Pompey recruited ‘The Yak’ on loan from Israeli team Maccabi Haifa midway through their promotion from the then-First Division, now-Championship in the 2002/03 season, making the move permanent in the summer of 2003.
| Yakubu’s goals per season in the Premier League, per Transfermarkt | |
| Season | Goalscoring tally |
| 2003/04 | 16 |
| 2004/05 | 12 |
| 2005/06 | 13 |
| 2006/07 | 12 |
| 2007/08 | 15 |
| 2008/09 | 4 |
| 2009/10 | 5 |
| 2010/11 | 1 |
| 2011/12 | 17 |
Yakubu scored 28 goals in his first two seasons in the top division, up from one goal every other game in the former First Division.
The then-22-year-old had a lot to live up to on Teesside, as he was ready to lead the line alongside Mark Viduka for a team that had once again qualified for the UEFA Cup after finishing seventh in the league.
But he was able to meet the challenge, and when it came time for him to leave Middlesbrough after a few years, he also made a respectable profit for the club.
Yakubu’s time at Middlesbrough – Premier League consistency and a European final
Yakubu had scored at least 12 goals in his first two Premier League seasons with Portsmouth, and he was able to replicate that in his two seasons with Middlesbrough.
Despite being the most expensive Nigerian footballer at the time, the Yak scored 19 goals in all competitions during his first season and played an important role in the club’s run to the UEFA Cup (now Europa League) final and FA Cup semi-finals, where they were defeated by Sevilla and West Ham United, respectively.
However, as would be expected of any club that goes on such a long domestic and continental run, league form suffered, and Boro failed to qualify for any European competitions that season, finishing 14th despite Yakubu’s 13 league goals.
Middlesbrough did not progress much in the league during the 2006/07 season, picking up one extra point and finishing 12th. Boro did make it to the FA Cup quarterfinals that season, but were knocked out by Manchester United in the replay.
Yakubu scored four goals during the cup run, in addition to the 12 he scored in the league that season.
However, his desire to play in the Champions League, a league in which he scored five goals in as many games during his lone season with Maccabi Haifa, led him to Everton that summer, where he joined a team that had finished in the top six in 2006/07 and hoped to break into the top four.
Middlesbrough earned a profit on Yakubu after two great seasons
Yakubu left Middlesbrough having scored the second-most Premier League goals in his four seasons with both Boro and Portsmouth, trailing only Thierry Henry.
As a result, a significant amount would have been required to lure the 24-year-old away from the Riverside, and Everton agreed to pay a then-club-record £11.25 million for his talents.
Unfortunately, Yakubu did not play in the Champions League again in his career, although he did spend three straight seasons in the Europa League with Everton before falling out of favour with David Moyes and being loaned out to Leicester City for the second half of the 2010/11 Championship season.
He would go on to prove his worth in the Premier League for another season at Blackburn Rovers, scoring 17 goals (his greatest top-flight total) before joining the now-defunct Chinese Super League club Guangzhou City.
For Middlesbrough, however, bringing in someone who broke a transfer record at the time and selling him for a profit of just under £4 million two seasons later represents good business, even if they did not recover from losing both Yakubu and Mark Viduka in the same window and were relegated two years later.
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