Why Super Eagles strikers Osimhen, Awoniyi, Onuachu have not reached Yekini’s heights :: All Nigeria Soccer

Sunday October 23 is the posthumous birthday of late Super Eagles striker Rashidi Yekini who could have been 58 years old had he been alive. 

 

Yekini is Nigeria’s all-time record leading goal scorer in international football with 37 goals in 62 matches. 

 

Yekini almost single handedly won Nigeria a ticket to the 1994 FIFA World Cup in the United States which was the country’s maiden appearance at the tournament. 

 

Nigeria had lifted the 1994 Africa Cup of Nations in Tunisia earlier in the year and at the World Cup produced a brand of attractive football that saw the FIFA technical study group rate the team as the second most entertaining team behind winners Brazil. 

 

The Eagles reached the round of 16 of USA ’94 but lost to Italy 2-1 largely due to inexperience. 

 

Yekini thrived as the focal point of the team because the team have a system of play that has worked out well for many years. 

 

Formerly known as the Green Eagles, the Nigerian national team won their first Afcon title at home in 1980 with wing play the key to the team’s attacking style. 

 

Adokiye Amiesimaka and Segun Odegbami were the stars of the left and right wings respectively which supplied ammunitions to the forward players. 

 

Over the years, it has become a tried and tested gameplan for successive Nigerian team coaches as the nation is blessed with fast wingers whose primary jobs were to get past their markers and deliver quality crosses into the opposition boxes. 

 

When the Super Eagles played and won the Tunisia 94 Afcon and debuted at the same year’s World Cup, the duo of Emmanuel Amuneke and Finidi George reenacted the flair and effervescent style of play seen 14 years before then. 

 

The wingers were simply the best in their positions on the continent and certainly among the best in the world. 

 

That ‘tradition’ continued even after the retirement of the players – Amuneke being awarded the 1994 African Footballer of The Year – and George part of the 1994/1995 UEFA Champions League Ajax winning side. 

 

However since their grand exits from active football as players (both are now coaches), the country have not had wingers of same ilk. 

 

Modern day wingers now elect to cut inside from the wing as they are not traditionally wired to hug the bylines and strictly whip in crosses. 

 

The fad in present footballing style is to have left footed wingers on the right and right footed wingers on the left who are expected to offer their dribbling skills which are expected to create goal scoring chances. 

 

In the trio of Victor Osimhen, Taiwo Awoniyi and Paul Onuachu the Super Eagles have players who have severally been described as being ‘the new Yekini’ because of their gangly style of playing. 

 

Osimhen’s goal scoring feat for clubs he has so far played for in Europe and in the green and white of the Super Eagles have drawn comparisons and in fact predictions that Yekini’s 37-goal mark will be surpassed. 

 

Currently Osimhen has 15 goals in 23 caps and would certainly added to that number had injury not scuttled his 2021 Africa Cup of Nations ambitions. 

 

The likes of  right-sided winger Samuel Chukwueze who was key in Osimhen scoring 10 goals at the FIFA U-17 World Cup in 2015 which makes him the record top scorer at the cadet World Cup is an important member of the Super Eagles. 

 

Moses Simon is also nearly undroppable especially after his Afcon exploits but both stars are prime examples of modern day wingers who are accustomed to playing infield. 

 

Coach Jose Peseiro has a duty to unearth wingers who play the old school way that might add another element to the team’s game plans. 

 

Perhaps that is the way to guarantee even more goals for the strikers mentioned above whose aerial threats should count for something. 

 

Izuchukwu Michael

 

 

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