One of the downsides of being a performer in the digital era is that errors are exaggerated, never allowed to fade entirely from the collective memory. Put the word Yakubu into a YouTube search and it automatically suggests what you are looking for is: "Yakubu World Cup miss".
The one miss is more famous than the many hits for Yakubu Aiyegbeni, even after the sort of spectacular day he enjoyed for Blackburn Rovers at the weekend.
Yakubu's four goals against Swansea City served to boost Blackburn when they most needed it; they reminded Premier League audiences why the Nigerian has for the last eight years been one of the more sought after goal-getters in English football, particular by clubs seeking a striker who can make his own chances and impose his will on opposition penalty areas.
Yakubu's quartet bore witness to his range of talents. For the first, a neat flick to confuse his nearest defender, a savvy anticipation to take the return pass from Gael Givet, and a firm finish.
For the next pair, he showed his strength, elevation and thrust, with two headers.
His fourth came from a penalty, converted with poise. All of those qualities would have been familiar enough to watchers of Portsmouth - in their Premier League era - and to fans of Middlesbrough and of Everton.
That list of employers tells you that although Yakubu has reached a European final - with Boro in 2006 - he has played most of his football for teams below the very summit of the Premier League.
There is a sense with Yakubu that he might have achieved more by the age of 28, and that the patented chants - "Feed the Yak and he will score!" - ought perhaps to have been heard more often in, say, a Champions League setting.
It certainly looked as if that sort of environment would suit the teenaged Yakubu. He was born in Benin City but had moved to Lagos, the country's largest metropolis, to pursue his career as a footballer.
At Julius Berger, one of Nigeria's bigger clubs, he was spotted by scouts representing European clubs. He briefly moved to Portugal, and then, more successfully, to Israel and Maccabi Haifa.
Yakubu made history for Maccabi, scoring the goals that made them the first Israeli team to reach the group stage of the Champions League. There, the muscular young Nigerian scored a hat-trick against Olympiakos, and registered a goal against Manchester United.
Yakubu had done more than enough to excite managers in Europe's grander domestic leagues, so it seemed surprising he opted to join Portsmouth in January 2003.
But that was where his connections led him, initially on loan, and by the time his goals had helped the south coast English club seal promotion to the Premier League, he was a permanent member of Harry Redknapp's squad.
He thrived, and an especially accomplished four-goal performance against Middlesbrough evidently stuck in opposition minds because after two and half years at Portsmouth, he moved to Boro, for around £7.5 million (Dh43m). Two years later, his value having risen to around £11.25m, he joined Everton. He hit 21 goals in his debut season at Goodison Park, despite missing a month of it on duty at the African Cup of Nations.
His Nigeria career has been mixed. He made his debut in 2002, but was not picked for that summer's World Cup. He risked his popularity at home for choosing to prioritise his Middlesbrough career rather than travel to the 2006 Nations Cup, but returned to captain Nigeria on occasions.
Yet, alas for Yakubu, it is the miss of an easy chance in a drawn World Cup finals group match against South Korea in 2010 that sticks out in the mind of most Nigeria followers. What the YouTube clips do not say is that Yakubu also scored in that match. Nigeria had needed to win it to progress in the tournament but could only draw.
"I'm still not sure fans have forgiven him," the former Nigeria captain Kanu told me this week. Yakubu has not played for his country since "The Miss" but is keen to play for them again. "Nigeria needs him," said Kanu, "and his goals for Blackburn shows he is back in form."
Of that there had been doubts that go all the way back to an Achilles injury he suffered at Everton.
After it, he seemed for a period to have lost some of his explosive acceleration, became less important to the plans of the manager David Moyes and would be loaned out to Championship club Leicester City.
That was last January. Back in the Premier League, Yakubu is looking like the saviour a struggling Blackburn require. His four goals against Swansea take him to nine in nine matches. They have added something to Lancashire vocabulary, too. What he achieved on Saturday was, apparently, a "Yak-trick".
sports@thenational.ae
The bio
Studied up to grade 12 in Vatanappally, a village in India’s southern Thrissur district
Was a middle distance state athletics champion in school
Enjoys driving to Fujairah and Ras Al Khaimah with family
His dream is to continue working as a social worker and help people
Has seven diaries in which he has jotted down notes about his work and money he earned
Keeps the diaries in his car to remember his journey in the Emirates
Red flags
- Promises of high, fixed or 'guaranteed' returns.
- Unregulated structured products or complex investments often used to bypass traditional safeguards.
- Lack of clear information, vague language, no access to audited financials.
- Overseas companies targeting investors in other jurisdictions - this can make legal recovery difficult.
- Hard-selling tactics - creating urgency, offering 'exclusive' deals.
Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
RESULTS
Catchweight 82kg
Piotr Kuberski (POL) beat Ahmed Saeb (IRQ) by decision.
Women’s bantamweight
Corinne Laframboise (CAN) beat Cornelia Holm (SWE) by unanimous decision.
Welterweight
Omar Hussein (PAL) beat Vitalii Stoian (UKR) by unanimous decision.
Welterweight
Josh Togo (LEB) beat Ali Dyusenov (UZB) by unanimous decision.
Flyweight
Isaac Pimentel (BRA) beat Delfin Nawen (PHI) TKO round-3.
Catchweight 80kg
Seb Eubank (GBR) beat Emad Hanbali (SYR) KO round 1.
Lightweight
Mohammad Yahya (UAE) beat Ramadan Noaman (EGY) TKO round 2.
Lightweight
Alan Omer (GER) beat Reydon Romero (PHI) submission 1.
Welterweight
Juho Valamaa (FIN) beat Ahmed Labban (LEB) by unanimous decision.
Featherweight
Elias Boudegzdame (ALG) beat Austin Arnett (USA) by unanimous decision.
Super heavyweight
Maciej Sosnowski (POL) beat Ibrahim El Sawi (EGY) by submission round 1.
How to watch Ireland v Pakistan in UAE
When: The one-off Test starts on Friday, May 11
What time: Each day’s play is scheduled to start at 2pm UAE time.
TV: The match will be broadcast on OSN Sports Cricket HD. Subscribers to the channel can also stream the action live on OSN Play.
Farage on Muslim Brotherhood
Nigel Farage told Reform's annual conference that the party will proscribe the Muslim Brotherhood if he becomes Prime Minister.
"We will stop dangerous organisations with links to terrorism operating in our country," he said. "Quite why we've been so gutless about this – both Labour and Conservative – I don't know.
“All across the Middle East, countries have banned and proscribed the Muslim Brotherhood as a dangerous organisation. We will do the very same.”
It is 10 years since a ground-breaking report into the Muslim Brotherhood by Sir John Jenkins.
Among the former diplomat's findings was an assessment that “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” has “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
The prime minister at the time, David Cameron, who commissioned the report, said membership or association with the Muslim Brotherhood was a "possible indicator of extremism" but it would not be banned.
More on Quran memorisation:
The bio
Favourite vegetable: Broccoli
Favourite food: Seafood
Favourite thing to cook: Duck l'orange
Favourite book: Give and Take by Adam Grant, one of his professors at University of Pennsylvania
Favourite place to travel: Home in Kuwait.
Favourite place in the UAE: Al Qudra lakes
The burning issue
The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.
Read part four: an affection for classic cars lives on
Read part three: the age of the electric vehicle begins
Read part one: how cars came to the UAE
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Akeed
Based: Muscat
Launch year: 2018
Number of employees: 40
Sector: Online food delivery
Funding: Raised $3.2m since inception
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Persuasion
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RESULT
Argentina 0 Croatia 3
Croatia: Rebic (53'), Modric (80'), Rakitic (90' 1)
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 261hp at 5,500rpm
Torque: 405Nm at 1,750-3,500rpm
Transmission: 9-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 6.9L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh117,059
More coverage from the Future Forum
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
Zakat definitions
Zakat: an Arabic word meaning ‘to cleanse’ or ‘purification’.
Nisab: the minimum amount that a Muslim must have before being obliged to pay zakat. Traditionally, the nisab threshold was 87.48 grams of gold, or 612.36 grams of silver. The monetary value of the nisab therefore varies by current prices and currencies.
Zakat Al Mal: the ‘cleansing’ of wealth, as one of the five pillars of Islam; a spiritual duty for all Muslims meeting the ‘nisab’ wealth criteria in a lunar year, to pay 2.5 per cent of their wealth in alms to the deserving and needy.
Zakat Al Fitr: a donation to charity given during Ramadan, before Eid Al Fitr, in the form of food. Every adult Muslim who possesses food in excess of the needs of themselves and their family must pay two qadahs (an old measure just over 2 kilograms) of flour, wheat, barley or rice from each person in a household, as a minimum.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
