Ade Akinbiyi

Adeola (Ade) Peter Oluwatoyin Akinbiyi (born October 10, 1974 in London Borough of Hackney, London) is an England born Nigerian football (soccer). He plays for Burnley F.C. in the Football League Championship.

Playing Career

Early Career

Akinbiyi has had a much-travelled career with many different clubs. He began his career in 1992 at Norwich City F.C.. His début was on 3 November, 1993 as a 77th minute substitute against Bayern Munich. Bayern Munich v Norwich City was drawn 1–1. This meant that Norwich won the second round UEFA Cup 1993-94 tie 3–2 on aggregate and went on to face Inter Milan, who eliminated them, in the third round.

He was loaned to Hereford United F.C. and Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. before completing a Pound sterling250,000 move to Gillingham F.C. in 1997. He scored 29 goals in 67 league and cup games and was quickly transferred to Bristol City F.C. for £1.2m.

His stock continued to rise and after scoring 21 goals in 47 league appearances for Bristol City he completed a £3.5m move to Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. in 1999. The year after that, he made his debut in the English Premier League with Leicester City F.C..

Despite costing £5m, he managed to score only 11 goals in 58 league appearances for the club resulting in a £2.2m transfer to Crystal Palace F.C. in Division One, where he wore the number 55 shirt - one of the highest numbers ever worn by any player in English football.

Having scored just one goal in 14 league and cup appearances, he was loaned out to Stoke City F.C. in 2003. He scored twice - the second goal coming in the last game of the 2002-03 in English football season, when The Potters won 1-0 against Reading to seal their Division One (now 'The Championship') status. He later joined on a permanent basis, on a free transfer, and became a cult hero with the Stoke City crowd.

Burnley and the Blades

He completed a £600,000 move to Burnley F.C. getting sent off on his debut within two minutes for head butting George McCartneyof Sunderland. He then moved in January, 2006 to Sheffield United F.C. for a then club record £1.75 million.

He scored on his debut for the Blades against Derby County F.C., and on February 18, 2006, Akinbiyi scored in his first Steel City derby at Hillsborough Stadium.

It was reported that Akinbiyi was involved in a training ground bust-up with team-mate Claude Davis in October 2006 following a 2-0 defeat against Everton F.C. in which Davis had been sent off.

In all, Akinbiyi made only five appearances for the Blades in the Premiership in 2006 and, on 1 January, 2007, he returned to Burnley F.C. for a fee of £650,000 with a further £100,000 to be paid in the summer of 2007. His second debut for the Clarets was more successful, scoring a goal against Premiership side Reading F.C..

During the rest of the 2006-07 season, Akinbiyi was not as successful as during his first spell at Burnley, scoring just 3 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. He was given the number 9 shirt for the 2007-08 season by boss Cotterill.