Obafemi Martins

Obafemi Martins
Personnel
Surname	Obafemi Akinwunmi Martins
birthday	October 28, 1984
place of birth	Lagos ,  Nigeria
size	170 cm
position	Storm
Juniors
Years	station
1999-2000	FC Ebedei
2000-2001	AC Reggiana
2001-2002	Inter Milan
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
2000-2001	AC Reggiana	2 0(0)
2002-2006	Inter Milan	88 (28)
2006-2009	Newcastle United	88 (28)
2009-2010	VfL Wolfsburg	16 0(6)
2010–2012	Rubin Kazan	20 0(3)
2011	→  Birmingham City  (loan)	4 0(0)
2012-2013	Levant UD	21 0(7)
2013-2016	Seattle Sounders	74 (39)
2016–	Shanghai Shenhua	26 0(9)
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals) 2
2004–	Nigeria	39 (18)
1 Only league games are given. As of November 18, 2016 2 As of February 13, 2014

Obafemi Akinwunmi Martins (born October 28, 1984 in Lagos ) is a Nigerian football player who also has an Italian passport.

Club career

Success with Inter Milan

Martins began his professional career in 1999 with his hometown club FC Ebedei before he was mediated in 2000 by Sunday Oliseh's brother to AC Reggiana (3rd Italian league). From there he moved a year later for the equivalent of € 750,000 to Inter Milan , where he initially played extremely successfully with the youth team and won the championship. He made his Serie A debut for Inter on December 22, 2002 against AC Parma . However, his breakthrough came when he scored an important goal in the UEFA Champions League against Bayer 04 Leverkusen on March 19, 2003 . As with almost every goal, he celebrated such a spectacular and artistic goal that it was included in the UEFA Champions League commercial in 2003/04. What also sets him apart is his acceleration and speed. His biggest success so far is winning the Italian championship in the 2005/06 season with Inter Milan.

Years of traveling through Europe

After the club signed Hernán Crespo and Zlatan Ibrahimović in the summer break of 2006, two well-known attackers, Martins saw no sporting prospects at the Italian champions and moved to Newcastle United in the English Premier League for 15 million euros . There he not only replaced the long-term retired Michael Owen , but also took over the number 9 from the resigned Alan Shearer , who previously wore it for ten years.

Martins in Newcastle had a contract until 2011, before moving to the relegation of Newcastle United in the second English League on 31 July 2009 for 10.5 million euros for VfL Wolfsburg moved. There he signed a four-year contract. Under coach Armin Veh and successor Lorenz-Günther Köstner, the striker failed to make the leap to become a regular, and the Nigerian couldn't get past Edin Džeko and Grafite .

After six goals in 16 Bundesliga games, Martins left VfL in the summer of 2010 and moved to Russian first division club Rubin Kazan for nine million euros . There he was to take the place of striker Alexander Bukharov , who was drawn to Zenit St. Petersburg . In Russia, things did not go well for the 2010 World Cup participant. Again and again injuries threw him back.

In January 2011 Rubin Kazan Martins loaned out to the then English first division club Birmingham City . Although he was relegated with the Blues, he still celebrated the surprising win of the league cup. In the final against Arsenal , the Nigerian scored the 2-1 winner one minute before the end.

In September 2012, Martins dissolved his contract with Rubin Kazan, which was actually running until 2013, and signed a two-year contract with the Spanish first division club UD Levante . There he should close the gap in the storm that the move of the Ivorian Arouna Koné to Wigan Athletic has left. After seven goals in 21 games, however, Martins broke his contract prematurely in March 2013.

Change to the USA

A few days later, his follow-up engagement with the Seattle Sounders became known, where he plays in the American Major League Soccer (MLS). With good performances and a strong goal rate, Martins became the club's figurehead in Seattle. In the 2014 season , Martins won the MLS Supporters' Shield with the Sounders as the best team of the regular season, but in the playoffs the club was eliminated in the semifinals.

Playing time at Shanghai Shenhua

On February 18, 2016, it was announced that Martins had signed Shenhua at Shanghai . He has since played in the Chinese Super League .

National team

Martins made his debut for the Nigerian national team on May 29, 2004, scoring a goal (against Ireland ) in his first game . With Nigeria he also took part in the 2006 African Cup of Nations.

On June 20, 2007, he survived an assassination attempt in his hometown of Lagos unharmed. During a drive, masked men shot the occupants of the car in which Martins' friends were. A friend of his who was also in the car was gunshot wounds. Not only after this incident did Martins consider stepping down from the national team. There have been problems with the Nigerian Football Association many times before. For example, in August 2006, when Martins' date of birth was shown on May 1, 1978 on the association's website, which would have made him six years older. Although the Nigerian Association apologized for this mistake, the move to Newcastle United was temporarily in danger.

With Nigeria, the striker was eliminated from the 2010 World Cup without a win and was substituted on against Argentina (0: 1) and South Korea (2: 2).

Web links

• Profile on transfermarkt.de
• Obafemi Martins in the database of weltfussball.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Martins will play in Birmingham City on loan ( Memento of the original dated February 2, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
2. ↑ El Levante ficha al delantero internacional nigeriano, Obafemi Martins ( Memento of the original of September 17, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. official homepage of Levante UD on September 14, 2012 
3. ↑ Levante catches Martin's entry on primera-division.com
4. ↑ levanteud.com: Martin's deposita la cláusula de rescisión en la LFP ( Memento of the original of March 13, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , March 11, 2013, accessed March 12, 2013 
5. ↑ BBC Sport: Obafemi Martins leaves MLS for Chinese Super League
6. ↑ Obafemi Martins escapes the assassination attempt in Lagos ( Memento of the original from October 17, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. soccerway.com on June 20, 2007