Adeola Oluwatoyin Akinbiyi (born 10 October 1974) is a football coach and former professional footballer.
As a player he was a forward who notably played in the Premier League for Norwich City, Leicester City and Sheffield United, as well as in Major League Soccer with Houston Dynamo. He has had a much-travelled career with many different clubs with transfer fees totalling more than £11.5 million during his career, including being Leicester City's record signing (at £5.3 million) at the time. He also played in the Football League with Hereford United, Brighton & Hove Albion, Gillingham, Bristol City, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Crystal Palace, Stoke City, Burnley and Notts County. Born in England, Akinbiyi qualified to play for the Nigeria national team through his parents, and earned one cap for Nigeria in 1999.
In 2013 he was appointed as player-coach at non-league side Colwyn Bay. He remained with the club for several seasons before taking up a sports consultancy role in Africa.
Club career
Early career
Akinbiyi began his career as a trainee at Norwich City, where he worked his way up into the first team in 1992. He made his début on 3 November 1993 as a substitute against German club Bayern Munich in the UEFA Cup. The match ended 1–1, meaning that Norwich won the second round tie 3–2 on aggregate and went on to face Inter Milan, who eliminated them. He was loaned to Hereford United and Brighton & Hove Albion before completing a £250,000 move to Gillingham in 1997. He scored 29 goals in 67 league and cup games for the Gills and was quickly transferred to newly promoted First Division side Bristol City for £1.2 million.
Big money moves
Akinbiyi's stock continued to rise and after scoring 21 goals for Bristol City in the 1998–99 season, Wolverhampton Wanderers paid a club record £3.5 million for him in September 1999 in an attempt to replace Robbie Keane. He played only one season at Molineux, finishing as the club's top goalscorer with 16 goals but Wolves just missed out on a playoff place.
Ten months after arriving at Wolves, he departed to Premier League club Leicester City for £5.5 million, a decision he would later regret. Brought in as a replacement for Emile Heskey (who left for Liverpool for £11 million), he failed to live up to expectations, scoring only 11 goals in 58 league appearances.
His spell at Leicester hit rock bottom in a 4–1 defeat at home to Liverpool. He missed four easy chances, including a miss from six yards in the last minute. He was booed by Leicester fans whose patience with Akinbiyi had run out. Soon after, he scored his first league goal of the season in a crucial 1–0 win at home to Sunderland, which prompted him to say that "hopefully this will start a flood of goals for me".
Leicester transferred Akinbiyi to Crystal Palace for £2.2 million in February 2002. On arrival he took the surprisingly high number 55 shirt, adding a very small plus sign between the numbers to signify his preferred shirt number, 10, which was already taken. Having scored just one goal in 14 league and cup appearances, he was loaned out to Stoke City in 2003. He scored twice – the second goal coming in the last game of the 2002–03 season, when the Potters beat Reading 1–0 to retain their second tier status. He later joined on a permanent basis, on a free transfer in September 2003. He scored ten goals in 2003–04 and won the Player of the Year award. In 2004–05, Akinbiyi scored seven goals in 30 matches and was subject to bids from Sheffield United. All of Sheffield United's offers were turned down by Stoke but an offer from Burnley was accepted.
Burnley
Akinbiyi completed a £600,000 move to Burnley in February 2005, but marked his debut by getting sent off within two minutes for head butting Sunderland player George McCartney. After netting 16 times for the Clarets, he moved to Sheffield United for a then club record £1.75 million in January 2006.
Sheffield United
Akinbiyi scored on his debut for the Blades against Derby County, and endeared himself to fans by scoring in his first Steel City derby at Hillsborough. After winning promotion, Akinbiyi made only five appearances for the Blades in the Premier League in 2006. It was also reported that he was involved in a training ground bust-up with teammate Claude Davis in October 2006 following a 2–0 defeat against Everton in which Davis had been sent off.
Return to Burnley
Akinbiyi was soon resold to Burnley in January 2007 for a fee of £650,000 with a further £100,000 to be paid in the summer of 2007. His second debut for the Clarets was more successful, scoring a goal against top flight Reading in the FA Cup.