Former Black Stars and Ajax midfielder, Yakubu Abubakar known in football circles as Zapata, has passed on at age 36.
According to reports,Yakubu who died on Tuesday afternoon was under oxygen support at the Tema Government Hospital before given up.
The former Vitesse player was a member of the Black Stars squad that qualified Ghana for their first ever FIFA World Cup in 2006.
At age 17 Abubakar joined AFC Ajax and remained in the Netherlands for one full decade. He made his Eredivisie debut on 19 April 2000, playing 50 minutes in a 1–1 away draw against
FC Den Bosch and finishing his first season with only five appearances.
Yakubu played in an average of 15 league games in the following four years, helping the Amsterdam side to two national championships[1] and the 2002 edition of the Dutch Cup.
He spent the 2004–05 campaign on loan to fellow league team Vitesse Arnhem.
In the ensuing off-season, Yakubu signed permanently with the latter club for four years, being intermittently used during four seasons and released in the 2009 summer. In early October, he had an unsuccessful trial with TSV 1860 München from Germany.
Yakubu won the Eridivise twice with Ajax in 2002 and 2004. Abubakar who grew up in Tema in the Greater Accra region of Ghana had 16 caps for his country at the senior level.