Stephen Makinwa
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Stephen Ayodele Makinwa | ||
| Position(s) | Striker | ||
| Team information | |||
Current team | Palermo | ||
| ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 2005 | |||
Stephen Ayodele Makinwa (born 26 July 1983 in Lagos) is a Nigerian football striker, who currently plays for Italian Serie A side US Palermo and the Nigeria national football team.
Discovered in 2000 by Reggiana when in Nigerian team Football Club Ebedei, Makinwa started his Italian football experience being moved on loan to Serie D team Conegliano. In 2001 he is on the Serie B team Como squad, by Como buy 50% rights, but does not play any match. In 2002 he is back to Reggiana, in Serie C1, but the following season he is again in Como, but now as a regular. Como buy rest of the 50% from Reggiana and sold him to Genoa in 2003. In January 2004 Makinwa was loaned to Modena and makes his debut in Serie A.
Makinwa starts the 2004-2005 season in Serie B, with Genoa, but, during the January football market, he is bought by last-placed Serie A team Atalanta, in a last effort to enforce the squad and avoid the relegation. During this experience, Makinwa finally shows his full potential as a powerful and quick striker, but his team is not unfortunately able to maintain his top division place, despite an excellent second league round.
During the 2005 summer market, despite rumours of interests for the player from Inter Milan, Makinwa joins US Palermo in a 7.5mln € bid.
Stephen Makinwa, as well as his good friend and national team mate Obafemi Martins, is known for celebrating his goals by making several consecutive somersaults.
Makinwa also played for Nigeria in the 2006 African Cup of Nations.