Michael (“Mike”) Edirin Obiku (born 24 September 1968 in

Warri The city of Warri is an oil hub within South-South Nigeria and houses an annex of the Delta State Government House. Warri City is one of the major hubs of the petroleum industry in Nigeria. Warri and her twin city, Uvwie are the commercial c ...

) is a retired

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

striker. He is currently coach at

Feyenoord Rotterdam Feyenoord Rotterdam () is a Dutch professional football club in Rotterdam, which plays in the Eredivisie, the top tier in Dutch football. Founded as Wilhelmina in 1908, the club changed to various names before settling on being called after it ...

's Soccer Schools.

Club career

Obiku started his career with Flash Flamingoes in his native Nigeria and earned a move to highfliers

Iwuanyanwu Nationale Heartland Football Club founded as Spartans F.C., later known as Iwuanyanwu Nationale from 1985 to 2006 is a Nigerian football club based in Owerri. The team play their home games at Dan Anyiam Stadium (but currently use the new Okigwe Stadium ...

. From there, he moved on to become very successful in Cyprus. Then

chairman

Jorien van den Herik Jorien van den Herik (born 11 November 1943 in Sliedrecht) is a Dutch businessman. He is most widely known as the former chairman of Dutch football club Feyenoord Rotterdam between 1992 and 2006. Van den Herik helped Feyenoord to purchase some ...

, who had a house on Cyprus, lured him to

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...

. On club level he won the Dutch

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; ''"Honour Division"'' or ''"Premier Division"'') is the highest level of professional football in the Netherlands. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start of professional football in the Netherlands. It is c ...

in 1993 and the

KNVB Cup The KNVB Beker (; en, KNVB Cup), branded as the TOTO KNVB Beker for sponsorship reasons, is a competition in the Netherlands organized by the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) since 1898. It was based on the format of the English FA Cup. Ou ...

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

and

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

with Feyenoord. He later became the first Nigerian to play in the

J1 League The , known as the for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the system. Founded in 1992, it is one of the most successful leagues in Asian club football. Contested by 18 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the J ...

. In 1999–2000 he returned to

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is geo ...

and to his favourite team

Anorthosis Famagusta F.C. Anorthosis Famagusta ( el, Ανόρθωση Αμμοχώστου, translit=Anorthosi Ammochostou), commonly known as Anorthosis in English or Anorthosi in Greek, is a Cypriot football club, part of the Anorthosis Famagusta multi-sport club fou ...

He scored 13 goals and helped his club to win the

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

for the 4th time in a row in Cyprus. After so many years Obiku is still one of the legends of Anorthosis Famagusta FC and he is considered one of the all-time best players who ever played not only for the club but also in Cyprus. The fans never forgot his first spell in the club in 1989–1992 scoring 36 goals and gave him the nick "Black Diamond".

Memorable moments

When Obiku scored for Feyenoord, he usually took off his shirt, threw it on the ground and danced around it. During a match against Willem II he jumped in the fences surrounding the pitch and injured his hands while grabbing the barbed wire. He did play on but had to have treatment on his bleeding hands first. On 8 March 1995 he won over the Rotterdam supporters when he scored the golden goal in the

quarter-finals against eternal rivals

Ajax Amsterdam Amsterdamsche Football Club Ajax (), also known as AFC Ajax, Ajax Amsterdam, or simply Ajax, is a Dutch professional football club based in Amsterdam, that plays in the , the top tier in Dutch football. Historically, Ajax (named after the l ...

. Ajax won the Champions League that season but were finished off by Obiku thanks to a marvellous solo effort.

International career

He represented the Nigerian national team at the

1988 African Cup of Nations The 1988 African Cup of Nations was the 16th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the soccer championship of Africa ( CAF). It was hosted by Morocco, who replaced original host Zambia. Just like in 1986, the field of eight teams was split into tw ...

, played in two World Cup qualifying matches and played 12 minutes at the

1988 Summer Olympics The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and commonly known as Seoul 1988 ( ko, 서울 1988, Seoul Cheon gubaek palsip-pal), was an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October ...

.Men's Olympic Football Tournament
– FIFA He played his final international match in April 1993 against

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

References

External links

Nigerian Players.com
* * *
Real Mallorca bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Obiku, Michael 1968 births Living people Nigerian footballers Nigeria international footballers Footballers at the 1988 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers of Nigeria 1988 African Cup of Nations players Anorthosis Famagusta F.C. players Feyenoord players Helsingborgs IF players RCD Mallorca players Avispa Fukuoka players AZ Alkmaar players APOEL FC players Eredivisie players La Liga players Segunda División players Allsvenskan players Cypriot First Division players J1 League players Nigerian expatriate footballers Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus Heartland F.C. players Expatriate footballers in Cyprus Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Japan Expatriate footballers in Japan Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate footballers in Spain Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Sportspeople from Warri Expatriate footballers in the Netherlands Association football forwards Bendel United F.C. players