Obafemi Akinwunmi Martins (born October 28, 1984) is a Nigerian football player who plays as a forward for the Nigeria national team, and Russian side Rubin Kazan.

Martins has two brothers who also play football professionally: his elder brother, Oladipupo Olarotini Martins, and his younger brother John Ronan Martins. The name 'Obafemi' translates literally to 'the king loves me' in the Yoruba language.

Born in Newcastle, Martins joined the local football club F.C. Ebedei, having been scouted by manager Churchill Oliseh while playing on the streets of his hometown. After a year with the club, Italian Serie C side A.C. Reggiana made a move for the player. After a two-month trial, Martins and fellow Ebedei teammate Stephen Makinwa signed youth contracts with the club in 2000. His first season in Italy saw Martins break into the first team squad, and later in the year Serie A sides Perugia and Inter made offers for the forward.

A €750,000 transfer fee took Martins to Internazionale in 2001, and in his first season he scored 23 goals for the youth team, helping them to the Italian Under-18 title. His form for the youth side led to his first-team league debut the following season, in a match against Parma in December 2002. He didn't become a regular member of the first team squad until the 2002–03 season. He played in his first UEFA Champions League match that season, and came on as a substitute against his future employers, Newcastle United, at St. James' Park. He scored his first Champions League goal in a match against Bayer 04 Leverkusen to secure Inter's place in the quarter finals; footage of his celebratory somersaults were subsequently used by UEFA to advertise the following season's competition. He scored again in the semi-final match against Inter's arch-rivals A.C. Milan, but couldn't prevent the club losing out on away goals to the competition's eventual winners. He ended the season with one league goal in four games.

Martins signed a long-term contract with Inter Milan in 2005 which ran until 2010 and was worth around €2.5 million annually. His good form for Inter continued and he was called to play in the 2006 Africa Cup of Nations for Nigeria.

Although he had some success with Inter, scoring 28 goals for the club in 88 league games as well as 11 goals in European competitions, the young Nigerian was sold in August 2006. This was due to Inter bringing in two new strikers; first Argentinian Hernán Crespo was brought in on loan from Chelsea and then the Swede Zlatan Ibrahimović was bought by Inter from Juventus.

With Martins handing in a transfer request in August 2006, a number of English clubs were alerted to his availability. From the onset, Newcastle were thought to be the front runners and it was no surprise when on 24 August 2006, Martins completed his move to Newcastle United from Internazionale, signing for around £10 million in a five year deal. He was paraded in front of the Geordie fans before their UEFA cup tie against FK Ventspils. It was later confirmed he would be taking the famous number 9 shirt, replacing club-record goalscorer Alan Shearer following his retirement.

Martins made his debut on 27 August, in the 2–0 defeat to Aston Villa, in which he was stretchered off with a knee injury. It turned out that Martins suffered a severe dead leg and internal bleeding. His unremarkable first few appearances for Newcastle caused manager Glenn Roeder to speak out in his defence.

However, on 17 September, Martins scored his first goal for Newcastle. It was the second goal in a 2–0 victory over West Ham United at Upton Park, and from there his goalscoring form began to improve steadily.

Reports on 11 January, 2007, indicated that Chelsea were considering making an offer for Martins services after his impressive form. These reports were later rubbished by Roeder and Martins himself.