The Peter Pan of football is planning a fairytale trip to Wembley – and yes, he really is only 32.
Reading striker Yakubu is aware of the nudges, winks and jokes about his published age and the Nigeria international is ready to show the doubters he’s young enough for FA Cup glory in this weekend's first quarter-final.
Back in English football with Championship Reading after two and a half years playing in China and Qatar, he will bring his experience to bear against giant-killing hosts Bradford – after scoring the winner at Derby in the previous round.
The man known as ‘The Yak’ has been signed by Harry Redknapp, Steve McClaren, David Moyes and Sven Goran Eriksson at a combined cost of more than £25million and is 27th on the all-time list of Premier League goal-scorers after netting 95 times for Portsmouth, Middlesbrough, Everton and Blackburn.
But he has not lifted a major trophy in England, losing in the UEFA Cup Final with Boro and missed the game through injury when Everton were beaten by Chelsea in the 2009 FA Cup Final.
He has packed plenty of footballing experience into those 32 years – though his date of birth has been questioned since Moyes described him as ‘a Nigerian 25’ after taking him to Goodison for £11.25m.
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But Yakubu said: “It was always like that, with people doubting. If I was lying about my age I don’t think I would still be playing. I would be retired!
“It does not bother me - [fellow Nigerian] Kanu had it as well. People make a joke, I just laugh and that’s it.
“But trophies are missing from my career. Everywhere I went, we tried. At Boro, we lost to Sevilla in the final. I had a long-term injury when Everton got to Wembley. To play there would be special.”
Reading's boss Steve Clarke reckons Yakubu is ‘less explosive but more clever’ than in his much-disputed youth.
But Yakubu insists he has never lacked confidence since Redknapp brought him to England in 2003 – and told him in no uncertain terms not to respect big-name reputations.
He said: “Harry makes you believe - even when you play the big teams. He’ll say, ‘The defence is not good. Come on, just kill him’.
“If you’re scared, like you’re going to play against Sol Campbell, he’d say, ‘Sol Campbell? He’s s**t. Don’t worry’. That attitude is always with me.
"I learned so much at Portsmouth from Harry and Teddy Sheringham, who is the best striker I ever played with.”
Eriksson was another managerial favourite, during a loan spell at Leicester City and in the Chinese Super League with Ghangzhou.
Yakubu said: “He doesn’t put too much pressure on players. Sometimes when I played two or three games and I didn’t score, he’d just walk towards me, smiling and say, ‘Do you know you have to score in the next game?’ I'd say, ‘I know, Boss’. He communicates really easily.”
While Yakubu insists he enjoyed his lucrative sojourns in the East, there were communication problems at China and an unusual life as a nocturnal footballer in 2022 World Cup host-nation Qatar.
He said: “When I went to China we had a Brazilian coach, who spoke Portuguese. The other guys that speak English had to translate into English and then another guy had to translate from Portuguese to Chinese.
“Some of these Chinese guys don’t speak English. You don’t know how to tell them to pass the ball. You just scream at him and he knows he has to give you the ball. I always told them they have to learn how to speak English, not me learn how to speak Chinese!”
Yakubu spent a year with Qatar’s Al Rayyan before joining Reading on a short-term deal in January.
He said: “In Qatar, they can have a good World Cup. They have nice stadiums. But when it is hot, it is really hot.
“We had to train at 9.30 at night. You finish training at midnight, then go home and go to bed about 4am. You have to stay home all day because it’s too hot to train in the morning or afternoon.
“But, in the winter, it’s good.”
Selected Premier League goal records
| Player | Goals | Games | Goals per game |
| Yakubu | 95 | 288 | 3.0 |
| Ruud van Nistelrooy | 95 | 163 | 1.7 |
| Kevin Phillips | 92 | 311 | 3.3 |
| Ole Gunnar Solskjaer | 91 | 319 | 3.5 |
| Dennis Bergkamp | 87 | 377 | 4.3 |
| Fernando Torres | 85 | 261 | 3.1 |
| Carlos Tevez | 84 | 239 | 2.8 |
| Eric Cantona | 70 | 158 | 2.3 |