“I don’t have any problem playing as a withdrawn forward and assist Sunil (Chhetri) to score. The bottomline is to contribute. Yes, scoring goals give you immense pleasure, but helping your team-mates to score is equally satisfying. In a team game, you have to be ready to play wherever your coach wants you to play,” Yakubu told The Indian Express.

Kolkata Maidan didn’t get him in his prime. But being a class act, Yakubu has turned out to be East Bengal’s No 1 player even at this age. The player himself rues the fact that he didn’t come to Kolkata three years ago.

“I had an offer from East Bengal about three years back. They had shown keen interest. I turned down the offer, which was a mistake. In fact, the way the East Bengal fans celebrated after we beat Mohun Bagan made me realise what I lost by turning down the offer then. Nowhere in India you see such passion for football and footballers. It would have surely brought me more fame had I been here earlier,” Yakubu said.

The Ghanaian, however, laments over the fact that his club is not in the running for the I-League title. “We were slow off the mark and now it’s a little too late despite the fact that we have hit our best form in the last couple of matches. We still can aim for a top-three finish, which should be our target,” he commented.