Ghanaian forward Abdul-Aziz Yakubu has featured for Portuguese side Rio Ave for the first time since a proposed move to Egyptian side Al-Ahly collapsed.
Yakubu was set to join Ahly in late 2022 and be ready in time to compete in the Egyptian Premier League and CAF Champions League.
However, medical concerns over Yakubu’s twice surgically operated knee forced Ahly to renege on an outright four and a half year deal for the Ghanaian player.
Ahly opted for a six month loan deal for Yakubu instead but couldn’t stomp out the 1.5 million Euros asking price from Rio Ave leading to the deal’s collapse.
In his first game back, Yakubu climbed off the bench and played 45 minutes in Rio’s 0-1 loss to Pacos de Ferreira this past weekend.
Reacting after his first run out of the year with his club, Yakubu wrote “We keep going. Alhamdullilah” on his Twitter page. (Click highlighted text to view tweet)
On the other hand, fellow Ghanaian striker Emmanuel Boateng lasted the entire duration of the game.
The shock loss to the bottom ranked team in the league is Rio Ave’s sixth defeat this season while picking up five wins and five draws in the process.
Rio ranks 10th in the 18 team league standings and take on Famalicao on Sunday, January 22 next.