£4m Portsmouth FC signing gave Pompey goals and £3.5m profit: View | OneFootball

‘Feed the Yak and he will score’

It’s a chant sure to go down in football folklore, a song that serenades the man, the myth, the legend: Yakubu Aiyegbeni.

The Nigerian personifies top flight football in the period of the early noughties; just as much that high-octane Portsmouth side that took the Premier League by storm does.

We’re talking Dejan Stefanovic, Steve Stone, Matty Taylor blasting one in from 40 yards every other game, all with a massive Beanie Babies logo on their front. What a time to be among the rocking Fratton Park faithful.

Yakubu Aiyegbeni Portsmouth FC career

Yakubu had already made a name for himself before joining Portsmouth in the middle of the 02/03 campaign, having netted five times in the Champions League that season for Maccabi Haifa.

A hat-trick against Olympiacos on the continental stage proved just how prolific he could be, as well as a late penalty in a 3-0 trouncing of Manchester United in a historic night for the Israeli side.

From the Champions League to the Football League within a matter of months, Pompey won the race to sign the Nigerian forward in February of 2003 - initially on loan - with his seven goals in 13 appearances helping his side earn promotion to the top flight before making the move permanent in a deal said to be worth £4 million.

The stands were shaking, the bell was ringing, and Pompey were playing up; what a time it was to be on the south coast by the Solent, as Harry Redknapp got the perfect tune out of his squad to easily avoid the drop back to the second tier.

Shaka Hislop in goal, Arjan De Zeeuw and Stefanovic patrolling the backline while Linvoy Primus overlaps Patrick Berger to put in a cross for Svetoslav Todorov or Teddy Sheringham to head home. Those really were the halcyon days.

And that extra little bit of magic was so often provided by the Yak, who tugged his side out of the relegation zone to finish a respectable 13th with eleven goals in the final ten games of the season.

The first in that run came against arch-rivals Southampton - who would have no doubt been revelling in Pompey’s plight at the bottom of the table - but the Nigerian’s finish midway through the second half silenced the Saints and further endeared himself to the Fratton Park faithful.

That only seemed to whet his appetite for more goals, with the winner against Blackburn Rovers in his next match followed by a crucial point-earner against Charlton Athletic, before a late penalty against Birmingham City made it 10 points from a possible 12 to stave off any relegation fears.

Further strikes against Leeds United, Fulham and Arsenal saw Pompey put together an eight-game unbeaten run when they needed it the most, before Yakubu saved the best until last with a four-goal haul in a 5-1 victory over Middlesbrough in the final match of the season with the whole of the city in party mode.

17 goals in 35 matches followed the next season, further highlighting the Nigerian’s prolific nature in front of goal, with a hat-trick against Fulham one of the standout performances, as well as further goals against Manchester United and Southampton.

It was no wonder that a whole host of clubs were tempted to make a bid for the striker in the summer of 2005, and it was Middlesbrough who stumped up the cash to bring him to the Riverside in a deal said to be worth £7.5 million.

Yakubu seals Middlesbrough move

Boro were flying high themselves after Carling Cup success the season before as well as featuring in European competition, and the lure of UEFA Cup football - as well as Pompey being able to cash in on their star striker - was enough for the deal to be struck.

The Teessiders immediately saw a return on their investment with vital goals in wins over Arsenal and Aston Villa, before the former Pompey man lived up to the curse of scoring against a former club as he found the opener in a 1-1 draw against his old employers at the Riverside.

It wasn’t just in domestic competition that Yakubu was thriving either; with his winner in a 1-0 victory over Roma a memorable occasion for the Teessiders, before featuring in unbelievable comebacks against FC Basel and Steaua Bucharest en route to the UEFA Cup final.

It wasn’t to be though, with Sevilla running out 4-0 winners, but 19 goals in 56 appearances had proven Steve Gibson right in splashing the cash on Pompey’s goal-poacher.

The Yak was still being fed, and he was indeed scoring, with another 16 goals the next season, seeing the Nigerian moving clubs once again at the end of the campaign, with Everton parting with a reported £11.25 million to bring him to Merseyside.

Moves to Leicester City and Blackburn Rovers followed, before switching to China with Guangzhou Evergrande in the summer of 2012, as we all bade farewell to one of the finest strikers of the Premier League era.

But that goodbye proved not to be the final one, as the striker came back to make fleeting appearances for Reading and latterly Coventry City in the twilight of his career, although he looked a shadow of the man who dominated top flight defences at the start of the millennium.

A cult hero if ever there was one, and a wise investment from those at Fratton Park. Yakubu epitomised peak-Portsmouth; fun-loving and sharpshooting. He will never be forgotten on the south coast.