Stephen Ayodele Makinwa (born 26 July 1983) is a retired Nigerian

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as a striker. Makinwa also played for the Nigerian national team. His name, Ayodele, means "''Joy has come home''".

Club career

Early career

Makinwa was born in

Lagos Lagos (Nigerian English: ; ) is the largest city in Nigeria and the List of cities in Africa by population, second most populous city in Africa, with a population of 15.4 million as of 2015 within the city proper. Lagos was the national ca ...

, Nigeria. Discovered in 2000 by Reggiana while playing for Nigerian local side Ebedei alongside his childhood friend and teammate

Obafemi Martins Obafemi Akinwunmi Martins (born 28 October 1984) is a Nigerian former professional footballer who played as a forward. He is known for his speed on the ball. After leaving Nigeria for Italy at age 16, he has since played for a number of top-di ...

, Makinwa started his Italian football experience moving on loan to

Serie D The Serie D () is the top level of semi-professional football in the country. The fourth tier of the Italian league system, the competition sits beneath the third professional league, Serie C. It is administered by the Lega Nazionale Dilettant ...

team

Conegliano Conegliano (; Venetian: ''Conejan'') is a town and ''comune'' of the Veneto region, Italy, in the province of Treviso, about north by rail from the town of Treviso. The population of the city is of people. The remains of a 10th-century castle ar ...

. In 2001, he moved to

Serie B The Serie B (), currently named Serie Balkrishna Industries, BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 ...

team

Como Como (, ; lmo, Còmm, label=Comasco dialect, Comasco , or ; lat, Novum Comum; rm, Com; french: Côme) is a city and ''comune'' in Lombardy, Italy. It is the administrative capital of the Province of Como. Its proximity to Lake Como and ...

squad, as Como bought 50% of the rights to the player, however, Makinwa did not play any games for the team. In 2002, he was back to Reggiana, in

Serie C1 Lega Pro Prima Divisione was the third highest football (soccer), football league in Italy. It consisted of 33 teams, divided geographically into two divisions of 16 and 17 teams for group A and B respectively. Until 2008 it was known as Serie C1 ...

, but the following season he was again in Como, but now as a regular.

Genoa and loans

Como bought the remainder of the 50% ownership rights from Reggiana in June and sold him to

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...

in August 2003. In the first half of the season, he was remained on loan at Como. In January 2004 Makinwa was loaned to

Modena Modena (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language#Dialects, Modenese, Mòdna ; ett, Mutna; la, Mutina) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern I ...

and made his debut in Serie A. In the 2004–05 season, he returned to Genoa and scored 6 goals in the first half of the Serie B season. That season, Genoa also owned effective strikers

Diego Milito Diego Alberto Milito (born 12 June 1979) is an Argentine former professional footballer who played as a striker. He is currently a sports manager. Milito began his club career in Argentina with Racing Club in 1999, and later moved to Italian ...

and Roberto Stellone.

Atalanta & Palermo

In January 2005 Makinwa moved to

Atalanta Atalanta (; grc-gre, Ἀταλάντη, Atalantē) meaning "equal in weight", is a heroine in Greek mythology. There are two versions of the huntress Atalanta: one from Arcadia, whose parents were Iasus and Clymene and who is primarily known ...

in a joint-ownership bid, but Atalanta was relegated in June 2005, although the club decided to buy the remaining rights on 27 June. In July 2005, Makinwa joined

Palermo Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan ...

for a reported €7.5 million transfer fee. He only remained at Palermo for a season, however he showed enough promise to suggest that he could develop into a quality

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...

player, scoring 5 goals in 23 league matches as Palermo qualified for Europe and 3 goals in the Uefa cup.

Lazio

Makinwa then went to

S.S. Lazio Società Sportiva Lazio (; ; ''Lazio Sport Club''), commonly referred to as Lazio, is an Italian professional sports club based in Rome, most known for its football activity. The society, founded in 1900, plays in the Serie A and have spent ...

in summer 2006, on a co-ownership deal for €3.3 million, being reunited with

Delio Rossi Delio Rossi (born 26 January 1960) is an Italian football manager and former footballer who played as a midfielder. He was most recently in charge as head coach of Serie B club Ascoli. Playing career Rossi was born in Rimini. His playing career ...

, his former coach at Atalanta. In June 2007, he was fully contracted by Lazio, following a blind auction between the biancocelesti and Palermo, for another €3.3 million. He also signed a new five-year contract. In 2007–08, Makinwa got his first experience of the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

, failing to score as Lazio crashed out in the group stages. Following six months of unconvincing performances, Lazio sent him on loan to relegation battlers

Reggina Reggina 1914 S.r.l., commonly referred to as Reggina, is an Italian football club based in Reggio Calabria. Founded in 1914, they currently play in Serie B, and play their home matches at the 27,763 seater Stadio Oreste Granillo. They are nic ...

, but he still did not find the net, ending the season without a goal to his name. He began the 2008–09 season as a fringe player at Lazio; making just four substitute appearances. On 22 January 2009, it was announced that Makinwa had signed for

Chievo Chievo (4,500 inhabitants) is a frazione of Verona located to the west of the city, around from the historic city centre, on the shores of the river Adige. It is best known for its football team, A.C. ChievoVerona, which competes in the second ...

until the end of the 2008–09 season, for €250,000. The deal was a loan, with an option of making the move permanent, although Chievo decided not to sign the Nigerian and he returned to Lazio for the 2009–10

AE Larisa

On 15 July 2010, Makinwa joined

Larissa Larissa (; el, Λάρισα, , ) is the capital and largest city of the Thessaly region in Greece. It is the fifth-most populous city in Greece with a population of 144,651 according to the 2011 census. It is also capital of the Larissa regiona ...

on loan from

Lazio it, Laziale , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

until the end of the season.

Beijing Baxy

Following the end of his contract with Lazio, Makinwa joined China League One side

Beijing Baxy Beijing Sport University Football Club (), commonly known as BSU (), is a Chinese professional football club that currently participates in the China League One division under license from the Chinese Football Association (CFA). The team is based ...

until the end of the 2014 season scoring 4 goals in his first 9 games.

Gorica

In July 2014 he was signed by Slovenian side

ND Gorica Nogometno društvo Gorica, commonly referred to as ND Gorica or simply Gorica, is a Slovenian football club based in the town of Nova Gorica. They are one of the most successful Slovenian clubs with four Slovenian PrvaLiga and three Slovenian Cu ...

International career

Makinwa played for the Nigerian national team and won 14 caps since making his debut in 2004. He played for Nigeria in the

2006 African Cup of Nations The 2006 Africa Cup of Nations was the 25th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the association football championship of Africa. It was hosted by Egypt. Just like in 2004, the field of sixteen teams was split into four groups of four. Egypt won ...

when they finished third. Two years on, he played in the side which again failed to win, losing at the

2008 African Cup of Nations The 2008 Africa Cup of Nations, also known as the MTN Africa Cup of Nations due to the competition's sponsorship by MTN, was the 26th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the biennial football tournament for nations affiliated to the Confede ...

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

. Both Makinwa and his national teammate

, are known for celebrating goals by making several consecutive somersaults.

Club statistics

References

External links

* * * * * () {{DEFAULTSORT:Makinwa, Stephen 1983 births Living people Nigerian footballers Nigerian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Italy Nigeria international footballers 2006 Africa Cup of Nations players 2008 Africa Cup of Nations players Sportspeople from Lagos F.C.D. Conegliano Calcio 1907 players A.C. Reggiana 1919 players Genoa C.F.C. players Atalanta B.C. players Palermo F.C. players S.S. Lazio players Reggina 1914 players Serie A players Serie B players Slovenian PrvaLiga players Como 1907 players Modena F.C. players A.C. ChievoVerona players Yoruba sportspeople Expatriate footballers in Greece Athlitiki Enosi Larissa F.C. players Super League Greece players Beijing Sport University F.C. players China League One players Expatriate footballers in China Expatriate footballers in Slovenia ND Gorica players F.C. Ebedei players Association football forwards