Yakubu Aiyegbeni Prefers Thierry Henry Over Shearer

Super Eagles striker Yakubu Aiyegbeni has sparked debate by naming Thierry Henry as his all-time favorite Premier League goalscorer over Alan Shearer. Speaking on the Head2Head Clubhouse podcast, Yakubu acknowledged Shearer's impressive goalscoring records but argued that Henry exhibited superior individual brilliance, technique, and pace.

Yakubu stated, “One-on-one he’s poor. Scoring goals, he’s unbelievable... but my all-time Premier League striker is Thierry Henry, he’s special.” This statement has garnered attention, particularly due to Yakubu's own history of high-profile misses, including a notable open-net miss for Nigeria against South Korea during the 2010 FIFA World Cup in Durban.

In that match, with Nigeria needing a win to qualify for the second round, Yakubu missed a close-range opportunity, which Shearer, then a BBC pundit, described as the worst miss he had ever seen. Despite the criticism, Yakubu, who scored 21 goals in 58 appearances for the Super Eagles, defends his international career, asserting that the miss should not define his contributions to Nigerian football.