Before the goals, the glory, and the Premier League stage, Yakubu Aiyegbeni learned football the hard way — barefoot on the dusty streets of Benin City, Edo State, where he was born on November 22, 1982.

Growing up in modest circumstances, Yakubu had no boots, no kit, and no academy facilities. What he had was raw talent and a relentless desire to play. The hard ground of those Benin City streets forged a touch and close control that formal coaching alone rarely produces.

The boy who took his boots off

When Yakubu eventually joined an academy and was given his first pair of football boots, he did not celebrate — he removed them almost immediately. The shoes felt heavy and unfamiliar, and he found he could not control the ball the way he could with bare feet on hard ground.

The coaches and teammates found the sight amusing enough to give him an informal title: the best player without shoes. It was a nickname that captured something real about the foundations of his game — a touch built not on coached technique but on necessity and instinct.

A journey worth telling

Yakubu's story, revisited in Episode 112 of the Sports Planet podcast by Complete Sports Nigeria, is a reminder of how many African footballers arrive at the highest levels of the game carrying journeys that began far from any manicured pitch.

He would go on to forge a career that took him to the Premier League and the Everton first team, becoming one of Nigeria's most recognisable strikers on the European stage. But the foundation, as he has recalled, was laid without a single boot to his name on the streets of Benin City.