Carl Asaba

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Personal information
Carl Asaba
Full name	Carl Edward Asaba
Date of birth	28 January 1973 (1973-01-28) (age 35)
Place of birth	London, England
Height	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
Playing position	Striker
Senior clubs¹
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1993–1994 1994–1997 1997–1998 1998–2001 2001–2003 2003–2005 2005–2006	Dulwich Hamlet Brentford Reading Gillingham Sheffield United Stoke City Milwall	0? 0(?) 52 (25) 32 0(8) 77 (36) 67 (23) 70 0(9) 21 0(3)
¹ Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 29/01/2007. * Appearances (Goals)

Carl Edward Sharon Asaba (born 28 January 1973 in London) is an English professional football player who plays as a striker. He is currently unaffiliated with any club, having had previous failed trials at Leeds United and Leicester City.

[edit] Career

Asaba first came to prominence at Brentford, debuting in 1994 after joining the club from Dulwich Hamlet. His goalscoring soon attracted attention and Reading signed him for a club record £800,000 on August 7, 1997. He did not make an impact for Reading scoring eight league goals from 32 appearances, and subsequently moved on to Gillingham for another club record fee of £600,000.

He finished top scorer for Gillingham in season 1998–99 with 20 league goals but much of the rest of his time at Priestfield Stadium was dogged by injuries. On March 9, 2001 he signed for Sheffield United for £92,500.

He became a favourite at Bramall Lane when he scored the second goal with a deft glancing header in a 2–1 win against local rivals Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough. He played a key role in the Blades reaching the Football League promotion play-offs with memorable late winners in home victories against Nottingham Forest and Leicester City respectively, and a hat-trick at Brighton & Hove Albion after coming on as a substitute.

On August 5, 2003 he was transferred to Stoke City where he was a big hit with the fans, gaining cult status. His name was even featured in the chant "duh, duh, duh, duh, Carl Asaba". He made 70 league appearances for Stoke scoring nine league goals. The notion that he attained cult status has recently been challenged on the Stoke City Oatcake Fanzine website, where it was called "a lie" by contributor, Bayernoatcake.

On August 25, 2005, Asaba joined Millwall in a free transfer, when then Stoke manager Johan Boskamp deemed him surplus to requirements. He spent one year with the London club scoring three league goals from 21 appearances.

The name Carl Asaba is commonly used as rhyming slang for the word harbour, again this has been called into question by Bayernoatcake.

Whether Carl Asaba actually wrote this Wikipedia entry, as suggested by Bayernoatcake, is unknown.