" During his time at Leicester, Ade Akinbiyi was to missing sitters what Vincent van Gogh was to painting. By the winter of 2001 he had become a comedy legend and even the Sun headlined, ‘Ade’s the worst striker in the league!’ on the front page of their sport’s section – rather kind for a tabloid.
Signed in the summer of 1999 for a record fee of £5m, Akinbiyi was seen as new boss Peter Taylor’s replacement for Emile Heskey. In hindsight he was, it was just that he was the replacement of today’s hopeless Emile Heskey, rather than the decent youngster that left for Liverpool.
For most of Akinbiyi’s first season, sitting in row Z was relatively safe as Leicester even challenged for their second successive UEFA Cup spot. However, a dramatic fall - of Ruud van Nistelrooy proportions – saw them lose nine of their last ten games.
Then came the fateful 2001/02 campaign, where the worlds of Leicester City and Ade Akinbiyi fell apart quicker than a Wolves back-four. From the outset, Leicester’s defence couldn’t even mark a lottery ticket, while the blundering Akinbiyi couldn’t strike a match.
It wasn’t long before the Nigerian’s calamities were turning ‘The Premiership’ into ‘You’ve Been Framed’ and he only made this worse when he finally broke his duck, twelve games into the season, against Sunderland. Embarrassingly, Akinbiyi celebrated by roaring around the stadium, topless, flexing his muscles (if only he spent as much time on his shooting) like he had scored a wonder goal. Unfortunately, replays showed that his six-yarder had taken a big deflection off a defender, then the post, all after he fluffed his first attempt.
By February 2002 Leicester were virtually relegated and Akinbiyi was a cult zero, having bagged just two goals from 22 appearances (and 78 entries into ‘101 Gaffes’). Astonishingly, it was then that Crystal Palace decided to pay whooping £2.2m for the misfit, when even a free transfer would have been overpriced. "