There are very few Footballers that are genuinely interesting, Adebayo Akinfenwa is one exception.
Most are over priced, over hyped prima donnas. All but very few are extremely dull.
Except our first nomination for Person of the Year – Adebayo Akinfenwa. Aka The Beast.
For those who aren’t aware of the man, one could wonder how a Football/Soccer player earns the nickname The Beast. Well it’s easy, he stands at 180 cm tall, weighs 100 kg+ (all muscle), and can bench press like no other footballer in the game. The FIFA computer game recently awarded him the strongest footballer in the game. And there’ll be no argument from anyone. They wouldn’t dare.
But don’t let the size fool you, Adebayo Akinfenwa has plenty of skills and deft touches to amaze and bamboozle oppositions. In addition to his bulking presence of course.
Ask Liverpool who visited AFC Wimbledon two FA Cups ago and found The Beast an absolute handful.
Ask the teams involved in the League Two playoffs in May.
Ask the host of Football teams from Leagues One and Two over the past decade and a half or so that he has shown off his power to.
The fact that he has spend his entire career in the third and fourth tier of English football is probably why not many would have heard of him. But after leading AFC Wimbledon to League One for the first time and providing one of the great sporting stories of the year, he became slightly more famous.
Although AFC Wimbledon’s rise was a team effort, it was hard to deny the impact he made.
The highlight of the Beast’s final win was the sight of him arguing who would take the final penalty with seconds to go to make it 2-0.
Despite not being the regular penalty taker Adebayo Akinfenwa assumed responsibility and grabbed the ball off the scheduled player. Who wasn’t going to argue. Who would.
The successful penalty capped his AFC Wimbledon career, as he announced he had been let go For the following season.
In the same interview he announced to managers to hit him up on What’s App. Thankfully Wycombe Wanderers did and he continues to ply his trade this season.
Adebayo Akinfenwa is not all about being the biggest man on the football field. His multiple appearances on Soccer AM and his YouTube channel help him become a cult figure. And the kids love him.
If you still need to know more, why not check out this bit from the BBC on the 10 things you may not know…
Sadly, not everyone loves him. As some clown at a recent game sent some racial abuse his way. One has to question why you would do it at all, let alone to the strongest man in football.
But we love him and so should you, which is why he is first cab off the rank for Gurgler Person of the Year for 2016.
Don’t know what the Person of the Year is all about, well read more here.
Remember. Vote Early. Vote Often.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyQ7-4_4jnY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07La8S7dmwA
