Stephen Makinwa

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Stephen Makinwa
Personal information
Full name	Stephen Ayodele Makinwa
Date of birth	July 26, 1983 (age 23)
Place of birth	Lagos, Nigeria
Playing position	Striker
Club information
Current club	Lazio
Youth clubs
?-2000	FC Ebedei
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
2000 2000-01 2001-02 2002-03 2003 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-	Reggiana Conegliano (on loan) Como (co-ownership) Reggiana Genoa Como (on loan) Modena (on loan) Genoa Atalanta (co-ownership) Palermo Lazio (co-ownership)	8 (2) 0 (0) 29 (6) 21 (6) 17 (1) 18 (6) 17 (6) 23 (5)
National team2
?	Nigeria	? (?)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of May 20, 2006. 2 National team caps and goals correct as of 2005. * Appearances (Goals)

Stephen Ayodele Makinwa (born 26 July 1983 in Lagos, Nigeria) is a Nigerian football striker, who currently plays for Italian Serie A side Lazio and Nigeria.

Discovered in 2000 by Reggiana while playing for Nigerian local side Football Club Ebedei, Makinwa started his Italian football experience moving on loan to Serie D team Conegliano. In 2001 he moved to Serie B team Como squad, as Como bought 50% of the rights to the player, however, Makinwa did not play any games for the team. In 2002 he was back to Reggiana, in Serie C1, but the following season he was again in Como, but now as a regular. Como bought the remainder of the 50% ownership rights from Reggiana and sold him to Genoa in 2003. In January 2004 Makinwa was loaned to Modena and made his debut in Serie A.

Makinwa started the 2004-2005 season in Serie B, with Genoa, but, during the January football-transfer market, he was bought by then last-placed Serie A team Atalanta, in a last-ditch effort to enforce the squad and avoid relegation. During this experience, Makinwa finally began to show his potential as a powerful and quick striker, but his team failed in its bid to maintain its top division place, despite an excellent second half of the season.

During the 2005 summer market, despite rumours of interests for the player from Inter Milan, Makinwa joined US Palermo in a €7.5m bid. He transferred to S.S. Lazio in summer 2006, in co-ownership for €3.3m, reunited with Delio Rossi, former coach of Atalanta in 2004/05 season.

Both Makinwa, and his friend and national team mate Obafemi Martins, are known for celebrating goals by making several consecutive somersaults.

Makinwa also played for Nigeria in the 2006 African Cup of Nations.

S.S. Lazio - Current Squad

1 Peruzzi | 2 Stendardo | 3 Bonetto | 4 Firmani | 5 Mutarelli | 6 Quadri | 7 Belleri | 8 Zauri | 10 Baronio | 11 Mauri | 13 Siviglia | 14 Berni | 15 Diakite | 17 Tare | 18 Rocchi | 19 Pandev | 20 Makinwa | 21 Inzaghi | 23 Greco | 24 Ledesma | 25 Cribari | 26 Mudingayi | 29 De Silvestri | 32 Ballotta | 33 Sereni | 68 Manfredini | 82 Gimelli | 83 Foggia | 85 Behrami | 88 Santarelli | 90 Arenas | Coach Rossi