Alexander Louis Jakubiak (born 27 August 1996) is an English professional footballer who plays as a

striker Striker or The Strikers may refer to: People *A participant in a strike action *A participant in a hunger strike *Blacksmith's striker, a type of blacksmith's assistant *Striker's Independent Society, the oldest mystic krewe in America People wi ...

for Scottish Championship club Dunfermline Athletic. Jakubiak made his sole appearance for Watford shortly before his graduation from the club's academy in the summer of 2014. Since then he has had loan spells at

Braintree Town Braintree Town Football Club is a semi-professional football club based in Braintree, Essex, England. They are currently members of and play at Cressing Road. History The club was formed on 24 September 1898 as Manor Works, the works team o ...

, Oxford United,

Dagenham & Redbridge Dagenham & Redbridge Football Club is a professional association football club based in Dagenham, Greater London, England. The team competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. Often known simply as Dag ...

Fleetwood Town Fleetwood Town Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of Fleetwood, Lancashire. Established in 1997, the current Fleetwood Town F.C. is the fourth incarnation of the club; it was originally formed ...

, Wycombe Wanderers,

Falkirk Falkirk ( gd, An Eaglais Bhreac, sco, Fawkirk) is a large town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland, historically within the county of Stirlingshire. It lies in the Forth Valley, northwest of Edinburgh and northeast of Glasgow. Falkirk had a ...

, Bristol Rovers, Gillingham and St Mirren. He would then play with

Dundee Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...

for three seasons, and would have a loan spell with

Partick Thistle Partick Thistle Football Club are a professional association football, football club from Glasgow, Scotland. Despite their name, the club are based at Firhill Stadium in the Maryhill area of the city, and have not played in Partick since 1908. ...

. Jakubiak played twice for the Scotland under-19 team in 2014.

Club career

Watford

Having originally joined the club as an Under-15, Jakubiak signed a scholarship deal with Watford in May 2012. In his first year, Jakubiak's strike against Peterborough United's academy side won the January 2013 League Football Education Goal of the Month award. On 11 March 2014, towards the end of his scholarship, Jakubiak was loaned to

, joining his Watford teammate Bernard Mensah at the

Conference A conference is a meeting of two or more experts to discuss and exchange opinions or new information about a particular topic. Conferences can be used as a form of group decision-making, although discussion, not always decisions, are the main p ...

side. His loan spell ran until 13 April, but in that time he made 11 appearances, including two starts, and scored one goal, on his debut against Wrexham. Jakubiak was subsequently involved in Watford's final three games of the 2013–14 season. He was an unused substitute in games against Derby County and Charlton Athletic before making his debut from the start in Watford's defeat at home to Huddersfield Town on 3 May 2014. Six days after making his Watford debut, Jakubiak signed his first professional contract, a two-year deal with Watford having a further option for an additional year. Despite reporting a two-year deal in 2014, at the conclusion of the 2014–15 season Watford announced Jakubiak had signed a new one-year contract with the club. In June 2016 Watford reported they had taken up their option of a further year on Jakubiak's contract, but in August they announced that he had now signed a new four-year contract with the club. On 23 June 2020, Watford announced that they would not be offering Jakubiak a new contract.

Professional-era loan spells

On 13 August 2014, Jakubiak moved on loan to League Two side Oxford United until 4 January 2015. He made his debut as a substitute in a 2–1 defeat to Mansfield Town on 16 August 2014. Jakubiak scored his first Oxford United goal, on his first start, in their game against

on 30 August 2014. After three months at the club, he was recalled by Watford on 4 November. On 27 November 2014, he joined League Two side Dagenham & Redbridge on a one-month-long youth loan. Jakubiak scored on his debut the next day, on 28 November 2014, in a 2–0 win over Bury. His loan spell was extended on 31 January 2015. The day Jakubiak's loan spell expired, Jakubiak scored his second goal for Dagenham & Redbridge, in a 3–1 win over Cheltenham Town. After that, Jakubiak's loan spell with the club was extended further until the end of the season. Jakubiak then scored his third goal of the season, in a 3–1 loss against Burton Albion on 21 February 2015 and two months later on 18 April 2015, Jakubiak scored, in a 3–2 win over Newport County. Jakubiak made 23 appearances and scored four times for the club. On 31 August 2016, Jakubiak joined

on loan until January of the 2016–17 season. He scored his first goal for the club in an

EFL Trophy The English Football League Trophy, known for sponsorship purposes as the Papa Johns Trophy after restaurant chain Papa John's Pizza, is an annual English association football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL Le ...

tie against

Carlisle United Carlisle United Football Club ( , ) is a professional association football club based in Carlisle, Cumbria, England. The team compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. They have played their home games at Brunton Par ...

on 9 November 2016. Although he originally joined for the duration of the season, he was recalled by Watford in January 2017 after an injury crisis at the club. On 30 January 2017, Jakubiak joined Wycombe Wanderers on loan until the end of the 2016–17 season. In January 2018, he moved on loan to Scottish Championship club

. On 9 August 2018 Jakubiak moved on loan to League One side Bristol Rovers for the 2018–19 season. He opened his account for Bristol Rovers in an

tie against West Ham Under-21s on 18 September. He made 38 league appearances for the club, 26 off the bench, scoring twice. In July 2019 Jakubiak joined League One club Gillingham on a season-long loan deal. Despite leaving the club in January he ended the season as the Kent side's top goalscorer in the league with six goals. In January 2020, Jakubiak left Gillingham, and joined Scottish Premiership side St Mirren on loan until the end of the season.

Dundee

In August 2020, Jakubiak signed a two-year deal with Scottish Championship side

. Jakubiak picked up an ankle injury in a pre-season win against Peterhead that would sideline him for several weeks. Jakubiak would make his return from injury and first competitive appearance for Dundee as a substitute against Ayr United. In December, during a league game against Inverness Caledonian Thistle, Jakubiak picked up a tendon issue in his thigh, which would leave him out of action for a few months. He would once again return to the pitch in a home win against Raith Rovers. After achieving promotion with the club, Jakubiak would score his first competitive goal for Dundee the following season in the Scottish League Cup in July 2021. In September, Jakubiak was injured once again in bizarre fashion, suffering a dislocated shoulder during an altercation at a Dundee nightclub. The injury would require surgery, which would again leave him out of action for the remainder of the year. On 31 January 2022, Jakubiak signed a one-year contract extension with

and joined Scottish Championship side

on loan until the end of the season. Jakubiak would score with his first competitive touch of the ball of the 2022–23 season for Dundee, converting from the penalty spot in a Scottish League Cup win over Hamilton Academical. He would go on to have a very successful start to the season, scoring four goals in four League Cup group stage games including a brace against Forfar Athletic. After hamstring and thigh issues respectively early in the season, Jakubiak returned to action for Dundee as a substitute in a home league victory over Ayr United in October. Jakubiak would finally score his first league goal for Dundee on 28 January 2023 as a substitute in a 3–0 win over league leaders Queen's Park, in which he also set up the opener. After years of injury disappointment, Jakubiak would form a successful striking partnership with

Zach Robinson Zachary Scott Robinson (born 11 June 2002) is an English professional footballer who plays as a striker for club Motherwell. He came through the academy of AFC Wimbledon and made a number of first team appearances, as well as playing on loan for ...

and would have a massive impact for Dundee, scoring 10 goals in 30 games including the opener in their Scottish Championship title-clinching win away to Queen's Park. On 31 May 2023, Dundee announced Jakubiak had not been offered a new contract and would leave the club.

Dunfermline Athletic

On 8 September 2023, after spending several weeks training with the club, Jakubiak reunited with former manager James McPake and joined Scottish Championship club Dunfermline Athletic on a deal until the end of the season

International career

Born in Westminster, England, Jakubiak was monitored by

Scotland national team The Scotland national football team gd, Sgioba Ball-coise Nàiseanta na h-Alba sco, Scotland National Fitbaa Team represents Scotland in men's international football and is controlled by the Scottish Football Association. It competes in the thr ...

John Collins John Collins may refer to: Arts and entertainment * John Collins (poet) (1742–1808), English orator, singer, and poet * John Churton Collins (1848–1908), English literary critic * John H. Collins (director) (1889–1918), American director an ...

, over his eligibility to play for Scotland or Poland, due to his Polish ancestry. On 22 August 2014, Jakubiak was called by the Scotland U19 squad. He made his Scotland U19 debut, where he came on as a substitute for

Harry Cardwell Harry James Cardwell (born 28 October 1996) is a professional footballer who plays as a centre-forward for National League side Southend United. He is considered strong, skilful and with a good turn of pace and excellent movement in leading the ...

in the 56th minute, in a 2–2 draw against Czech Republic U19.

Career statistics

Honours

Dundee * Scottish Premiership play-offs:

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

* Scottish Championship: 2022–23

References

External links

Alex Jakubiak
at Soccerbase {{DEFAULTSORT:Jakubiak, Alex 1996 births Living people English men's footballers English people of Polish descent Footballers from Westminster Men's association football forwards Watford F.C. players Braintree Town F.C. players Oxford United F.C. players Dagenham & Redbridge F.C. players English Football League players National League (English football) players Scotland men's youth international footballers Scottish people of Polish descent English people of Scottish descent Fleetwood Town F.C. players Wycombe Wanderers F.C. players Falkirk F.C. players Bristol Rovers F.C. players Gillingham F.C. players Scottish Professional Football League players St Mirren F.C. players Dundee F.C. players Partick Thistle F.C. players Dunfermline Athletic F.C. players