Former Super Eagles striker, Ade Akinbiyi, who wore jersey number 22 during his days at Leicester City, predicted some 14 years ago that, The Foxes would sometime in the future become a great club in the English League.
The 41-years-old Akinbiyi, was born on October 10, 1974 in London Borough of Hackney, had a much-travelled career with many different clubs with transfer fees totalling more than £11.5 million during his career. He was at a time Leicester City’s record signing at £5.5 million.
Despite failing to live-up to expectations, scoring only 11 goals in 58 league appearances, A k i n – biyi, while on the verge of leaving the club predicted that Leicester City would become a great club that would be reckoned with in years to come.
He was, however, not specific when the team would attain such greatness. The player said: “The funnie s t I’ve heard about myself was when I was travelling to sign for Leicester City. The deal didn’t work out at first and not because of money.
On the radio they were saying that was the reason and I was sitting in the car at the time thinking ‘this is laughable’. Some of the things the press make up are unbelievable.” After reaching double figures in his first season with the Foxes, Ade had some particularly strong criticism to overcome in 2001/02.
The season was to end in relegation for the club and in the first few months of the campaign Ade was going through something of a barren spell. In a 4-1 home defeat to Liverpool he missed three good opportunities and his luck was also out when going through one-on-one at Blackburn in the next game. And a third clean sheet of the season helped lift Leicester off the bottom of the table to 17th. Once Akinbiyi had sent Filbert Street into raptures with his somewhat fortuitous strike.
His spell at Leicester hit rock bottom in a 4-1 defeat at home to Liverpool. He missed four easy chances, including a one from six yards in the last minute. He was booed by Leicester fans whose patience with Akinbiyi had run out. Soon after, he scored his first goal of the season in a crucial 1-0 win at home to Sunderland. This feat prompted him to say that: “hopefully this will start a flood of goals for me.” Leicester transferred Akinbiyi to Crystal Palace for £2.2m in February 2002, after he played 58 matches and scored 11 goals.
The Nigerian’s playing days are now over following a career that began at Norwich City and finished at Colwyn Bay, with stops along the way at Hereford, Brighton, Gillingham, Bristol City, Wolves, Leicester, Crystal Pal ace, Stoke, Burnley, Sheffield United, Houston Dynamo and Notts County. Since retiring, Ade Akinbiyi has been working as a football consultant with a particular strength in talent identification.
He is currently the forwards coach at Skrill Conference North side Colwyn Bay and has high hopes of progressing up the ladder. “It could take five, six, ten years. I will always strive to reach where I want to go,” Akinbiyi said. He has also been working as a consultant in Africa where he has worked in Nigeria and Ghana with talented youths who are looking to further their football careers within Europe. A lot of money has changed hands for footballer Ade Akinbiyi. He’s played in the premiership for Leicester and Crystal Palace and internationally for his parents’ native Nigeria.
In January 2014, Ade, lost his father. He was devastated, and it wasn’t until later he found out he’d died of prostate cancer. His dad had kept it to himself. Ade talks about this huge shock, how it’s changed his life and how he feels about his own risk of prostate cancer. Ade is married, with three children and lives in Manchester. He was in Nigeria at the time- he’d spend some time there each year, sometime in the UK.
I got a call to say he’d passed away, but it was only when I went out and saw a copy of the death certificate that I found out it was prostate cancer. “The hospital out in Lagos was not the best for telling us things – I did wonder if the doctors hadn’t known what was wrong with him, but now I don’t think so. He’d been ill for quite a while, he must have had tests and just decided to keep it quiet.”
