Yakubu: ’Boro are going places

AIYEGBENI YAKUBU is convinced he is heading for the top after one of football’s worst-kept secrets finally came to light yesterday.

Yakubu is understood to have signed a five-year contract with Middlesbrough after the Teesside club agreed a fee of £6.5m with Portsmouth for the services of the 22-year-old striker.

The Nigeria international will officially join Boro on July 1, and is already eager to start work at The Riverside and add to his impressive goalscoring record in the Barclays Premiership after netting 43 goals in 92 appearances for Pompey.

“Boro are a club going places and the facilities are the best,” enthused Yakubu, who has the added incentive of UEFA Cup football to look forward to next season.

“It is a fantastic opportunity for me and I want the new season to start now. I cannot wait. The fact that Boro are in Europe is great for me. I am so excited.

“The stadium and the training ground are unbelievable. I had absolutely no doubts about signing for them once I saw what they had to offer. Boro are a club going to the top and their ambition is the same as mine.”

Yakubu faces a frontline battle with Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Mark Viduka for the starting places, but he sees the competition as a further sign of Boro’s upward progression.

“They are two of the best strikers around, they are fantastic players,” added Yakubu.

“The squad at Boro is very good and is getting better all the time.

“Getting into Europe again was a great achievement and there is a lot of ambition at Boro. “That’s why I’m here. All players want to play at the top and they are a club which is heading in only one direction.”

Hasselbaink hailed Yakubu as “a great signing for the club” and feels Boro can improve on their best-ever seventh-placed finish last season. “He is going to be a very important member of the squad,” added Hasselbaink.

Meanwhile, Everton could face an all-British tussle against Rangers in the final qualifying round of next season’s Champions League.

Should Rangers finish runners-up to Celtic in the Scottish Premier League, which going into the final weekend looks the most likely outcome, then Alex McLeish’s side would go into the second qualifying round of Europe’s elite competition.

With Everton entering in the third and final round, and due to be seeded because of England’s high co-efficient ranking, a Rangers win in their first tie could see them paired with the side who finished fourth in the Barclays Premiership.

While Rangers would be seeded in the second round of qualifying, they seem unlikely to earn similar recognition in the third round, and as such they could have to face Everton, or Manchester United.