Did You Know? The Yak Was The First African To Score A UEFA Hat-Trick

About one year ago, former Super Eagles forward, Yakubu Aiyegbeni, announced his retirement from football on his 35th birthday. The defense bully fondly called ‘The Yak’, made a total of 250 career appearances — 57 of which was for Nigeria from 2000 to 2012. Yakubu was an expert marksman and bane to any defense he was playing against, as he would routinely cry out, “Feed the Yak and he will score!”

Let’s highlight seven important achievements in the life of this all time great Nigerian footballer.

1. Yakubu was the first African to score a UEFA Champions league hat-trick.
2. Up until the end of his career in 2017, Yakubu still remains the highest Nigerian goalscorer in the Premier League with 95 goals.
3. He also holds the title for the most Premier League hat-tricks by an African player — 4 hat-tricks.
4. Yakubu is the 3rd highest scoring African in the Premier League, behind Togolese, Emmanuel Adebayor with 97 goals, and Didier Drogba, 114 goals.
5. The veteran attacker is Nigeria’s 3rd all-time highest goal scorer with 21 goals from 57 caps, 16 goals behind Rashidi Yekini, and one goal behind Segun Odegbami.
6. Yakubu is one of three teenagers to have scored a hat-trick in the UEFA champions league, alongside Wayne Rooney, and Raul Gonzalez.

 

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Source: Brillanet