By Victor Kanayo
In-form Nigeria’s Super Eagles Victor Osimhen has now set sight on winning the 2023 Confederation of African Football (CAF) Player of the Year award.
The prestigious awards ceremony is scheduled for December 11 in Rabat, Morocco.
The last time a Nigerian won the CAF Player of the Year Award was in 1999, after Nwankwo Kanu beat Samuel Kuffour of Ghana and Ibrahima Bakayoko from Ivory Coast to clinch the African gong.
Other Nominees
The men’s list initially consisted of 30 players but has been pruned down to four with Osimhen topping the list of a quartet that also includes Mohamed Salah (Liverpool and Egypt), Yaccine Bosounu (Sevilla and Morroco) and Riyad Mahrez (Manchester City and Algeria).
Senegal’s Terenga Lions captain, Sadio Mane, is the current Men’s Player of the Year having won the award at the last edition.
Osimhen has been one of the best players from the continent in the last year in review as the 24-year-old scored 31 goals in 39 appearances for Napoli last season, thus helping them win the Scudetto after 33 years.
He then became the first African player in the 125-year history of the Italian top-flight to win the Serie A Golden Boot.
Nigeria And AFCON Qualifier Exploits
Osimhen has now scored 20 international goals for Nigeria after scoring a hat-trick against Sao Tome and Principe on Sunday in their final Group A encounter of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier at the Godswill Akpabio Stadium, Uyo.
The 24-year-old Nigeria striker who was recently nominated for the 2023 Ballon d’Or award has now overtaken former Nigeria winger Ikechukwu Uche on the Super Eagles’ all-time top scorer’s chart to occupy the fourth position.
Ikechukwu Uche scored 19 goals in 46 appearances for the Super Eagles and was in the 4th position of Nigeria’s all time goal scorers before Osimhen scored a hat-trick against Sao Tome, to take his tally from 17 to 20 international goals in just 27 matches for the three-time African champions.
Only Yakubu Aiyegbeni (21 goals), Segun Odegbami (23 goals), and late Rashidi Yekini (35 goals) have scored more international goals than Osimhen.
Osimhen has scored his 20 international goals in 27 appearances, an average of 0.74 goals per game which is better than that of Nigeria’s all time leading goal scorer, late Rashidi Yekini, who scored his 37 international goals in 62 appearances, an average of 0.6 goals per game
