Obafemi Martins

Obafemi Martins

Personal information
Full name	Obafemi Akinwunmi Martins
Height	1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)
Position(s)	Striker
Team information
Current team	Newcastle United
Number	9
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 17:20, 18 October 2008 (UTC)

Obafemi Akinwunmi Martins (born 28 October, 1984 in Lagos) is Enoch ako adei's dad who plays as a striker for the Nigeria national team, and for the English club Newcastle United.

Martins has two brothers who also play football. His elder brother, Oladipupo Olarotini Martins, is on the books of Austrian side Innsbrucker AC, whilst his younger brother John Ronan Martins plays football in Nigeria. Amongst his childhood friends and teammates are the likes of Ifeanyi Emeghara and Stephen Makinwa.

The name 'Obafemi' translates literally to 'the king loves me' in the Yoruba language .

Club career

Early years

Born in Lagos, Nigeria, Martins joined the local football club F.C. Ebedei at the age of 14, having been scouted by manager Churchill Oliseh while playing on the streets of his hometown. After a year with the club, Italian Serie C side A.C. Reggiana made a move for the player. After a two-month trial, Martins and fellow Ebedei teammate Stephen Makinwa signed youth contracts with the club in 2000. His first season in Italy saw Martins break into the first team squad, and later in the year Serie A sides Perugia and Inter made offers for the forward.

Internazionale

A €750,000 transfer fee took Martins to Internazionale in 2001, and in his first season he scored 23 goals for the youth team, helping them to the Italian Under-18 title. His form for the youth side led to his first-team league debut the following season, in a match against Parma in December 2002. He didn't become a regular member of the first team squad until the 2002–03 season. He played in his first UEFA Champions League match that season, and came on as a substitute against his future employers, Newcastle United, at St. James' Park. He scored his first Champions League goal in a match against Bayer 04 Leverkusen to secure Inter's place in the quarter finals; footage of his celebratory somersaults were subsequently used by UEFA to advertise the following season's competition. He scored again in the semi-final match against Inter's arch-rivals A.C. Milan, but couldn't prevent the club losing out on away goals to the competition's eventual winners. He ended the season with one league goal in four games.

Martins signed a long-term contract with Inter Milan in 2005 which ran until 2010 and was worth around €2.5 million annually. His good form for Inter continued and he was called to play in the 2006 Africa Cup of Nations for Nigeria.

Although he had some success with Inter, scoring 28 goals for the club in 88 league games as well as 11 goals in European competitions, the young Nigerian was sold in August 2006. This was due to Inter bringing in two new strikers; first Argentinian Hernán Crespo was brought in on loan from Chelsea and then the Swede Zlatan Ibrahimović was bought by Inter from recently relegated Juventus.

Newcastle United

With Martins handing in a transfer request in August 2006, a number of English clubs were alerted to his availability. From the onset, Newcastle were thought to be the front runners and it was no surprise when on 24 August 2006, Martins completed his move to Newcastle United from Inter Milan for £10.1 million (€15 million), signing a five year deal. He was paraded in front of the Geordie fans before their UEFA cup tie against FK Ventspils. It was later confirmed he would be taking the famous number 9 shirt, replacing club-record goalscorer Alan Shearer who had occupied it for the previous 10 years.

Martins made his debut on 27 August, in the 2–0 defeat to Aston Villa, in which he was stretchered off with a knee injury. It turned out that Martins suffered a severe dead leg and internal bleeding. His unremarkable first few appearances for Newcastle caused manager Glenn Roeder to speak out in his defence.

Martins with teammate Nicky Butt in 2007

However, on 17 September, Martins scored his first goal for Newcastle. It was the second goal in a 2–0 victory over West Ham United at Upton Park, and from there his goalscoring form began to improve steadily.

Reports on 11 January, 2007, indicated that Chelsea were considering making an offer for Martins services after his impressive form. These reports were later rubbished by Roeder and Martins himself.

On 14 January, in a 2–3 away win against Tottenham Hotspur, Martins' 20 yard shot flew into the net. This strike was clocked by Sky Sports at a speed of 84 mph (135 km/h), making it unofficially the ninth hardest shot ever recorded in football according to the Guardian website. This was his tenth goal for Newcastle. Martins ended his first season on Tyneside with 17 goals in 46 games.

His second season was somewhat mixed. With new manager Sam Allardyce preferring to play Michael Owen and Mark Viduka up front, Martins found himself being used as an impact substitute for the first half of the season. Despite this he managed to score consistently, and when Allardyce was sacked and Kevin Keegan was appointed, Martins found himself being used as part of a three pronged attack along with Owen and Viduka. Martins scored less goals in his second season with Newcastle, mainly due to him no longer being the focal point of all their attacks as he was in his first season with them, as well as his season being interrupted with the African Cup of Nations in January.

Martins scored 6 goals in 12 league games during the first half of the 2008–09 season before a torn hamstring ruled him out for several games. It was comfirmed on January 07 2009, that Martins would undergo hernia surgery in Germany the next Monday. He was be operated on by renowned specialist Dr Ulrike Muschaweck.

Age Controversy

During discussion surrounding Obafemi's transfer to Newcastle, rumours started to surface that instead of Obafemi being only 21 that he was actually 25 or even 26. However, this rumour was confirmed as untrue by the Nigerian FA, who were the root of the rumours originally when they had a clerical error on his birth date (which stated he was born in 1978) when they first called him up to the national team even though his passport and Birth Certificate stated he was born in 1984. There are also rumours that Martins played with Celestine Babayaro (27) in the Nigerian youth team, this was deemed untrue though as Martins never played for the Nigerian youth team and only ever played for his hometown club FC Ebedei while in Nigeria at the age of 15.

International career

Martins has scored sixteen goals in 21 appearances for Nigeria. He was a part of the Nigerian team that finished third in the 2006 African Cup of Nations. Martins scored two goals in the competition, both coming against Senegal in the first round.

His future for the national team has been placed in doubt on numerous occasions after separate incidents of controversy. In August, 2006 the Nigerian FA website mistakenly had his date of birth down as 1 May 1978. This would have made him twenty-eight years of age, rather than twenty-one. The Nigerian FA soon confirmed that it had been an administrative error and apologised for the confusion it had caused. However Martins threatened to quit playing for the national team after the blunder had initially put his move to Newcastle in doubt.

On 6 February 2007, he did not turn up for the 4–1 friendly defeat against Ghana, despite being ordered to play. He later explained his absence was due to the fact he had travelled to Lagos in order to visit his sick mother. The Nigerian caretaker coach Augustine Eguavoen was furious with Martins and threatened to ban him from the national team. On 14 February 2007, Martins apologised for missing the game but said he believed his mother's health was more important. He also said that he will be available to play for Nigeria in the future. He made his return to the national side on 24 March 2007, playing the full match against Uganda in an African Cup of Nations Qualifying match and won.

Following the end of Nigeria's 2008 Africa Cup of Nations qualification campaign, Nigeria faced Mexico in Ciudad Juárez for a friendly match. Martins scored two goals in a 2–2 draw.

On 17 November 2007, Martins captained Nigeria for the first time, in a friendly match against Australia for his nineteenth appearance.

Career statistics

(correct as of 14 December 2008)

Club	Season	League		Cup		Europe		Total
		Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Internazionale	2002–03	4	1	2	0	4	2	10	3
	2003–04	25	7	3	1	9	3	37	11
	2004–05	31	11	6	6	8	5	45	22
	2005–06	28	9	6	2	8	2	42	13
Newcastle United	2006–07	33	11	4	0	9	6	46	17
	2007–08	31	9	2	1	0	0	33	10
	2008–09	12	6	1	0	0	0	13	6
Career Total		164	54	24	10	38	18	226	82

Honours

Individual:

• Confederation of African Football 'Young Player of the Year' 2003
• Confederation of African Football 'Young Player of the Year' 2004

Internazionale:

• Italian Serie A - Winner: 2005–06
• Coppa Italia - Winner: 2004–05
• Coppa Italia - Winner: 2005–06
• SuperCoppa Italiana - Winner: 2004–05
• SuperCoppa Italiana - Winner: 2005–06

Newcastle United:

• Intertoto Cup - Winner: 2006–07

External links

• Obafemi Martins at Soccerbase
• Profile at nufc.co.uk
• Profile at 4thegame.com