Birthplace: Lagos, Nigeria
Date signed: August 24, 2006
NUFC Debut: August 27, 2006 v Aston Villa (a)

Honours
CAF Young Player of the Year Award 2002, 2003; Scudetto 2006 Inter Milan); Coppa Italia 2002, 2003 (Inter Milan).

International Career
20 Nigerian Caps, 13 Goals
International Debut
May 2004 v Rep of Ireland

Fast, powerful and with a good eye for goal, Obafemi Martins joined Newcastle United on 24 August 2006, signing a five-year contract.

Martins moved to Tyneside from Inter Milan where he scored 28 goals in 88 Serie A appearances.

It was the brother of another former Serie A player, Sunday Oliseh, who spotted Martins' talent early. That brought him to Reggiana as a promising prospect in 2000 and a year later Inter saw enough potential to snap him up.

After a hugely successful season with Inter's youth team, the immensely talented Nigerian forward made his debut for the first team, aged 18, in a Coppa Italia match at Bari.

Fast, strong and hardworking, Obafemi, nicknamed Obagoal, fits the bill as the consummate front man. It took him just a few matches after he debuted for Inter to begin his goal scoring heroics.

Oba secured Inter's UEFA Champions League quarter final berth in 2002/03 when he came off the substitute's bench (aged 18 years, 4 months & 19 days) to score a crucial goal against Bayer Leverkusen on 19 March 2003 (Emre was Inter's other scorer that night), and he followed that up with a strike against AC Milan in the semi finals of the competition.

 Earlier that season, he had come on as a second half substitute at the San Siro when United drew 2 - 2 with the Italians.

Known to celebrate his goals with a spectacular sequence of somersaults, his goal celebrations at the BayArena didn't go unnoticed by UEFA, who decided to use the sequence of somersaults as an advertisement for the 2003/04 Champions League.

Obafemi's powerful, all-action brand of football gave him a Nigerian debut in May 2004, aged 19 - he scored against Ireland at Charlton (Shay Given missed that match) - in a season when he scored five goals in eight Champions League games for Inter.

Last season he represented Nigeria in the African Cup of Nations in Egypt, scoring twice.

Exciting, entertaining and enjoyable to watch, Martins will be aiming to follow in the footsteps of other great United strikers of the past. Opened his St. James' Park account with two goals against Levadia Tallinn in UEFA Cup on 28 September, 2006, and finished the 2006/07 season as United's top scorer with 17 goals.