Jonathan Akpoborie (born 20 October 1968) is a Nigerian former professional

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 ...

who played as a forward and spent the majority of his playing career in Germany.

Club career

Akpoborie started his professional career at Julius Berger, before moving to USA. In 1990, he joined

1. FC Saarbrücken 1. FC Saarbrücken (german: 1. Fußball-Club Saarbrücken e. V.) is a football club based in Saarbrücken, Saarland. The club plays in the 3. Liga, which is the third tier of football in Germany. The club began its existence as the football de ...

of German

2. Bundesliga The 2. Bundesliga ( ) is the second division of professional football in Germany. It was implemented 11 years after the founding of the Fußball-Bundesliga as the new second division for professional football. The 2. Bundesliga is ranked below ...

. Akpoborie also had spells with

FC Carl Zeiss Jena FC Carl Zeiss Jena is a German football club based in Jena, Thuringia. Formed in 1903 and initially associated with the Carl Zeiss AG factory, they were one of the strongest clubs in East Germany from the 1960s to the 1980s, winning the DDR-Ober ...

, Stuttgart Kickers, for whom he scored 37 goals in one season, and

Waldhof Mannheim SV Waldhof Mannheim is a multi-sports club, located in Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg. It is most known for its association football team; however, there are also professional handball and table-tennis sides. The club today has a membership of over ...

, before finally joining top-flight

FC Hansa Rostock FC Hansa Rostock () is a German association football club based in the city of Rostock, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The club is also called as "the cog" because of its club crest. They have emerged as one of the most successful clubs from the forme ...

in 1995. After spending two years at Hansa, the player moved to their

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

rivals

VfB Stuttgart Verein für Bewegungsspiele Stuttgart 1893 e. V., commonly known as VfB Stuttgart (), is a German sports club based in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg. The club's football team is currently part of Germany's first division, the Bundesliga. VfB S ...

and then

VfL Wolfsburg Verein für Leibesübungen Wolfsburg e. V., commonly known as VfL Wolfsburg () or Wolfsburg, is a German professional sports club based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony. The club grew out of a multi-sports club for Volkswagen workers in the city of W ...

in 1999. Akpoborie finished his playing career at Saarbrücken in 2002.

International career

Akpoborie was part of the Nigeria team that won the first edition of the FIFA U-16 Championship in

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

, scoring in the final against the then West Germany. Two years later, he featured for the Flying Eagles at the

1987 FIFA World Youth Championship The 1987 FIFA World Youth Championship took place in Chile from 10 to 25 October 1987. The 1987 championship was the 6th contested and won for the first time by Yugoslavia. Remarkably, in the course of the tournament the Yugoslavs defeated each of ...

in Chile. He attended and played for Brooklyn College. At the senior level, he was selected for the 1992 and

2000 Africa Cup of Nations The 2000 African Cup of Nations was the 22nd edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the association football championship of Africa ( CAF). It was co-hosted by Ghana and Nigeria, who jointly replaced Zimbabwe as host. Just like in 1998, the field o ...

where he won bronze and silver respectively. His first senior cap was in a 1992 Africa Cup of Nations Third-place match against Cameroon, which the Super Eagles won. He scored his first goal for the Super Eagles against

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

at the

1995 U.S. Cup The 1995 U.S. Cup was a four nation invitational tournament organized by the United States Soccer Federation (USSF) in June 1995. USSF began the U.S. Cup in 1992 and it was played annually until 2000, except for the World Cup years of 1994 and ...

on 24 June 1995. He got his second goal – a 48th-minute equalizer – in a 1–1 draw with

Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi ...

in a

1998 FIFA World Cup qualification 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

match on 12 January 1997. Akpoborie was surprisingly dropped from Nigeria's squad for 1998 FIFA World Cup by

Bora Milutinović Velibor "Bora" Milutinović ( sr-Cyrl, Велибор Бора Милутиновић; born 7 September 1944) is a Serbian former professional footballer and manager. He has managed at five editions of the FIFA World Cup, tied for the record a ...

, in spite of the fact that he played in five of the six

matches and was the joint second top scorer in the 1997-98 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup tournament. He was also one of the two Nigerian footballers to play in a European Cup final that year, the other being

Inter Milan Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale () or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries, is an Italian professional football club based in Milan, Lombardy. Inter is ...

defender Taribo West, who was red-carded in the

1998 UEFA Cup Final The 1998 UEFA Cup Final was a football match played at Parc des Princes in Paris on 6 May 1998 between two Italian sides, Lazio and Internazionale. Inter won the match 3–0. It was the first single-legged UEFA Cup final. Route to the final ...

, less than a month to the World Cup in France. In 1999, Dutch manager

Thijs Libregts Thijs Libregts (, born 4 January 1941) is a Dutch football coach and former player, who played professionally as a defender in the 1950s. His daughter Patricia was one of the Netherlands' leading water polo players in the 1980s and 1990s. Clu ...

recalled him to the national side in a

(AFCON) qualifier against

Senegal Senegal,; Wolof: ''Senegaal''; Pulaar: 𞤅𞤫𞤲𞤫𞤺𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭 (Senegaali); Arabic: السنغال ''As-Sinighal'') officially the Republic of Senegal,; Wolof: ''Réewum Senegaal''; Pulaar : 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 ...

. The game ended in a 1–1 draw, with Akpoborie scoring his third international goal. Nigeria did not play any qualifier after the game as they qualified as hosts of the 2000 AFCON after Zimbabwe – the originally designated host – failed to get a guarantee from the government. Akpoborie featured in a number of games ahead of the

2002 FIFA World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial football world championship for men's national teams organized by FIFA. It was held from 31 May to 30 June 2002 at sites in South Korea an ...

. In the

2002 FIFA World Cup qualification – CAF first round The CAF First Round of 2002 FIFA World Cup qualification was contested between 50 CAF members. The 50 teams were divided into 5 pools of 10 teams each. In each pool, the 10 teams were paired up to play knockout matches on a home-and-away basis. ...

, he scored his fourth goal in Nigeria's 4–0 win over Eritrea in Lagos.

Slave ship allegations

In 2001, Akpoborie made the headlines when a boat, managed by his family, was stopped in

Benin Benin ( , ; french: Bénin , ff, Benen), officially the Republic of Benin (french: République du Bénin), and formerly Dahomey, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, Burkina Faso to the nort ...

after allegations that it was carrying children into slavery in

Gabon Gabon (; ; snq, Ngabu), officially the Gabonese Republic (french: République gabonaise), is a country on the west coast of Central Africa. Located on the equator, it is bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the nort ...

. The incident led to Akpoborie's suspension from the Wolfsburg team and eventually, after a brief sojourn at Saarbrücken, to his retirement. The story of the ship, her passengers and her owner has been covered by the documentary ''Das Schiff des Torjägers'' (''The Goalgetter's Ship'') by Swiss director Heidi Specogna.

Personal life

Akpoborie now resides in

Lagos Lagos (Nigerian English: ; ) is the largest city in Nigeria and the second most populous city in Africa, with a population of 15.4 million as of 2015 within the city proper. Lagos was the national capital of Nigeria until December 1991 fo ...

. He works as a player agent for Rogon Sports Management.

References

External links

Biography
at Worldsoccer.com * {{DEFAULTSORT:Akpoborie, Jonathan 1968 births Living people Nigerian men's footballers Nigerian expatriate men's footballers Nigeria men's youth international footballers Nigeria men's under-20 international footballers Nigeria men's international footballers FC Carl Zeiss Jena players Stuttgarter Kickers players SV Waldhof Mannheim players FC Hansa Rostock players VfB Stuttgart players VfL Wolfsburg players 1. FC Saarbrücken players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Regionalliga players Expatriate men's footballers in Germany University at Buffalo alumni 1992 African Cup of Nations players 2000 African Cup of Nations players Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Men's association football forwards Brooklyn College alumni