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Meet the Beast: Northampton's Akinfenwa is 16 stone and world's strongest footballer
By Rajvir Rai
PUBLISHED: 00:00, 22 March 2013 | UPDATED: 09:30, 25 March 2013
In a busy gym in east London, the world's strongest footballer is showing why he's known as 'The Beast'.
Having bench pressed 120kg, 140kg and 175kg with minimal trouble, Northampton striker Adebayo Akinfenwa is readying himself to press 180kg, almost double his body weight.
He slowly lowers the bar to his chest before pushing it back up. He pauses, lowers it again and attempts to push. The bar barely moves.
Ripped: Adebayo Akinfenwa, aka the world's strongest footballer, tears open his shirt
For a brief moment The Beast seems to have finally been defeated, but younger brother Dele, part training buddy, part coach, has the words to inspire him: 'Come on, ain't nobody in the Football League or Premier League stronger than you, push. PUSH!'
It works; Akinfenwa gets a second burst and lifts the bar skyward. He sits up and invites Sportsmail to try. The offer is kindly declined; he is, after all, lifting nearly treble my weight.
'Man, if I got a good grip, I could probably throw you across the room and out the window,' he laughs.
No need for a demonstration this time.
It's an impressive display, and not without purpose. Akinfenwa, 30, is 16st, 5ft 10in and with 16 goals to his name in League Two this season.
Incredible bulk: Northampton striker Akinfenwa controls the ball
'I'm a naturally big guy and my whole game style is ball retention and strength,' explains Akinfenwa, the world's strongest player according to video game FIFA 13.
'I know how to tailor my body and fitness plan to my game. I'm not saying if I get too big it won't affect my game, but I know my body and know what will improve my game.'
His hulking frame has not always been a blessing, however, and often proved a burden in his youth.
Big from an early age — a result of Nigerian heritage and a childhood of starchy food — Akinfenwa struggled to get people to see past his size.
'Managers would say: "We think you've got ability but you're not fit enough",' he recalls.
Hat-trick hero: Akinfenwa poses with the first match ball of his career after a game against Accrington in November
Released by Watford at 18, Akinfenwa went to Lithuania, then Wales, and through 10 clubs in eight years, including four in one year. A journeyman career.
Now settled at Northampton, although his contract is up at the end of the season, Akinfenwa admits he is more comfortable in his own skin, but concedes some people may never accept his size.
'I don't fit the stereotypical perception of what a footballer should be,' he says. 'People look at me and feel footballers should be 10 stone and able to run around all the time. I've just taken to accepting it.
'It's part and parcel of football. People don't understand what they don't know and like to stick things in boxes. I don't let things like that affect me so much now.'
Just a fat Eddie Murphy? Akinfenwa has a bit more bulk than the actor pictured in 2004 (right) but certainly not as Murphy's title character in The Nutty Professor (below)
He laughs at abuse from rival fans and says his favourite chant is 'You're just a fat Eddie Murphy'.
Anyway, being called fat is hardly going to anger a man who suffered appalling racism in Lithuania.
'In my first pre-season game I heard "Zigga, Zigga, Zigga, kill the f****** n*****".
'I was 18 and remember wondering what have I got myself in to,' he says. 'Another time, an 11-year-old girl ran up to me and said "white power" and did the Hitler sign in my face.
'I called my older brother Yemi and said "I'm coming home," but he said: "You can come home and let them win or stay and show them what you are about".
'After I got through that year, I thought there is nothing I can't overcome in football.'
Inspirational: The journeys of Grant Holt (left) and Rickie Lambert have encouraged Akinfenwa that he too can play in the Premier League one day
His family and his faith got Akinfenwa through that difficult period. A practising Christian who reads the Bible daily and attends church every Sunday, the striker says the belief he will succeed, no matter what, comes from God and the example of his parents.
He adds: 'I feel I could hold my own in the Premier League — look at Grant Holt and Rickie Lambert, they got to the top at 30.
'Bradford showed that League Two is not to be sniffed at. I would love the chance to test myself against the best.'
This is not arrogance, this is just Akinfenwa: supremely self-confident and determined. 'You can tell me no but I'm going to go and kick down another door to get what I want,' he says. 'If you tell me I can't do something, I'm going to prove you wrong.'
Putting his weight around: Akinfenwa lifts some dumb bells in the gym
His desire to challenge perceptions and refusal to accept defeat forms the ethos behind the HaHa and Beast Mode clothing ranges which Akinfenwa set up a year ago.
'The HaHa brand is about defying people's limitations,' he says.
'People say you can't be a doctor or a lawyer. But you can.
'Beast Mode is about going hard in whatever you do. It doesn't matter who you are, if you apply yourself to the best of your abilities then, win, lose or draw, you have your Beast Mode on.'
He hopes the brand inspires young people, especially inner-city youths who he can relate to. having been born in Islington and raised on a council estate.
He may look like a Beast but, really, Akinfenwa is just a Big Friendly Giant.
