Pep Guardiola was right, Ade Akinfenwa is an ‘absolute legend’. Farewell, Beast…

As the game prepares to say goodbye to Adebayo Akinfenwa, Johnny Nic pays a handsome tribute to the much-travelled man mountain…
Who’s this then?
Saheed Adebayo Akinfenwa is a 39-year-old 6ft 1in striker who currently plays for Wycombe Wanderers as they attempt to get promoted to the Championship through the play-offs for the second time in three years. On Thursday he played his last home game for the club against MK Dons and is set to retire once their play-offs journey is over.
The very definition of the journeyman footballer, he has played for 14 different clubs in 21 years, but has played just one season in the second tier. Widely known for his physique, and reportedly football’s strongest man, there is no denying he’s a massive unit. However, while that is an asset to his game, it is not his only attribute by far as his 233 goals in 792 games suggests.
His career unusually began in Lithuania, at FK Atlantas, due to agent connections. He debuted in 2001 and won the cup with them before transferring to Barry Town in 2002 with whom he won a league and cup double. So that was three trophies in his first two years as a professional.
But Barry Town were in financial hardship and had to sell off players in 2003. That season saw Adebayo play for four different teams: Boston United, Orient, Rushden & Diamonds, Doncaster Rovers. Next year he settled at Torquay United for the 2004-05 campaign and did really well netting 16 in 41 League One games. However, the club was still relegated and he jumped ship to Swansea City for £85,000. They were also in League One.
He was the man who scored the first goal in the newly opened Liberty Stadium and he scored the winning goal to make it 2-1 in the 2006 Football League Trophy Final against Carlisle. They got to the play-off final but lost out to Barnsley on penalties with Ade missing his. He ended with 15 goals in 44.
His second season with the Swans was blighted by injury. At the end of it, he turned down a new contract. Swindon wanted to sign him but he failed the medical. Millwall offered him a month-to-month contract for seven games but he didn’t score. In January 2008 he got a move to Northampton Town. It was a more stable period of his career, spending 2007 to 2010 with the Cobblers netting 39 in 95 games and was the club’s Player Of The Year in 2009-10.
But once again restless in 2010 he was on the move to Gillingham for a decent season with 10 strikes in 37. They offered him another contract but he opted to return to Northampton now under a new manager for two more successful seasons, scoring 35 goals in 93 games. When the club released him in 2013, he was back to the Gills for a season and then two seasons in League Two with AFC Wimbledon. He left having scored 23 in 94 and picking up the Player Of The Year award for 2014-15.
In 2016 he signed for Wycombe Wanderers and settled in for the longest stretch of his career, winning their Player Of The Year award two years running in 2016-17, 2017-18. The were his fifth such awards at four different clubs.
Now 33, he loved playing under Gareth Ainsworth and in his six years, he’s never made less than 35 appearances, has played 248 times and scored 61 times, 36 of which came in his first two seasons at the club.
As he got into his mid-30s he started to be less the target man and more a creator or space-maker with 13 assists in his last three seasons.
Wycombe are 2-0 up in the play-off semi-final against MK Dons. At most he’s got two more games to play in, after coming on as an 83rd-minute sub. He’ll be 40 on Tuesday and is set to hang up his boots after a 21-year career.
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Why the love?
The journeyman player, one who does a job for a season or two and then moves on, is one of the game’s great traditions. However, when you’ve played for 14 clubs in 21 years and for two of them twice, it takes being a journeyman to a new level. But he never seems to have been short of suitors because most lower league teams can use a big man to score goals and hold up the ball.
While the obsession with the physicality of black players has often had racist overtones, it is an inescapable fact about Ade simply because he is so big and strong, able to bench press 180kg. ‘The Beast’ nickname is hardly savoury but it’s one he’s embraced with a clothing label ‘Beast Mode On’ and an autobiography ‘The Beast: My Story’. Maybe that was a good way to detoxify it.
However, he has suffered racism throughout his career, even this January confronting MK Dons fans who were abusing him. I mean, you’d have to be pretty stupid to do that to a man who could snap you in half, wouldn’t you?
Watching his clips from the last 20 years it’s clear that he has always had good positional sense and good feet. Some big people run heavily. You can imagine hearing them thudding along, but he doesn’t look like that. He moves lightly and uses his feet well. If he gets a run on you from a set-piece, there’s no way you’re stopping his header.
Loads of fans love him because he’s such an engaging fella, will take time out to chat to fans and have photos taken. And in this his final season, his ‘Last Dance’ as he calls it, he’s been doing a lot of that.
Pep Guardiola called him “a legend of English football, absolute legend” when Wycombe took on Manchester City in the cup and he got that right. He is a legend in that he’s one of those players that we will all remember long after his retirement, and remember with a smile.
Three great moments
You’ve got to say it. That’s good feet for a big man…
Some tremendous headers here and plenty of dancin’ on his toes strikes…
Five great headers…
Future days
As his career comes to a close as Ade closes in on middle-age, what he’s got planned for the future isn’t yet clear but he’d be a terrible loss to the game if he didn’t stay involved in coaching. His long experience must surely be valuable to a club, however he has said he doesn’t want to manage or coach.
“We’re talking to a couple of producers in LA, there’s a couple of movie projects. Then also, there are also talks with WWE. I reckon I’d be a good wrestler.”
I don’t know what the age limits for WWE are but you can see why it’d appeal to him. He’s not only got the physique for it, he’s got the character too.
It’s been a long journey from Lithuania but this is a man who has not taken the ordinary or easy route through his career and he should be congratulated for that.
Cheers, Ade. It’s been a pleasure.