Thomas Partey has changed his name to Yakubu as part of his conversion to Islam. The 28-year-old will still be referred to as Partey when he plays for Arsenal and will continue to wear Thomas on his shirt.
Speaking about his decision to do so in a recent interview in Ghana, the Gunners midfielder revealed that his girlfriend Sara Bella inspired him to convert. Partey also explained that he grew up around Muslims when he was a kid, telling Nana Aba Anamoah: "I have a girl that I love but I hardly speak about it."
While it is understood that the move is not a formal name change, the Ghana international was then asked to detail his decision to which he responded: "I grew up with Muslims so at the end of the day it’s the same thing. Now my name is Yakubu."
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Partey featured 24 times for Mikel Arteta's side in the Premier League this season, though his campaign was often hampered by injuries. As exclusively reported by football.london last month, the midfielder has been taking part in daily personal training sessions as he continues his recovery from injury.
The Ghanaian has been sidelined with a thigh injury sustained during the 3-0 defeat to Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park. Arteta had revealed that Partey’s situation was 'progressing' before the season ended.
A source told football.london that the best case scenario for Partey would be that he returned for the final game of the season against Everton on May 22. Though, with Arsenal’s medical staff keen not to rush the midfielder back and complicate his recovery, he did not feature.
“The stats are there and they are unquestionable,” said Arteta. “The win rate when Thomas is there is higher. It is something that is not good for us because in the last two seasons he has not been there as much as we want.
“He has been out injured and sometimes he pushes too far in order to play and he gets injured again. He is willing to help again to play this season. We don’t know if that is going to be possible, but for sure it won't be because of lack of intention from him.”
Partey is set for a highly-anticipated return next season, with the midfielder keen to bounce back at Arsenal after the club missed out on Champions League qualification. He said: "To say personal achievements, I have to be able to go further.
"I don’t know what can happen in the season so I go match by match, day by day, and in the end, whatever will happen, I’m grateful, I’m happy and I’ll keep on pushing until everything is okay."
He then detailed his omission from Ghana's opening games of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Madagascar and the Central African Republic due to an injury. Partey said: "We qualified for the World Cup without the Africa Cup and in the end, you’ll never know what will happen. So we have to be grateful, keep working and whatever we want to achieve, we will."
