Over the years, Nigeria have produced a plethora of high-level footballers. Augustine Okocha, better known as ‘Jay-Jay’ Okocha, is a prominent example of the ability they have had to develop players of an extremely high level and talent.

One of the positions in which they never found a foothold for very long, from an established player at both clubs and his national team, was at centre-forward. Several players performed in this position for them, including names like Rashid Yekini (all-time leading goal-scorer with 31 goals) Obafemi Martins, Odion Ighalo or Ahmed Musa, but they did not mark a great era like Didier Drogba or Samuel Eto’o did, for example, for their respective nations.

With only 22 games played, Victor Osimhen, at 24 years old, has already scored 15 goals, making him the player with the best goal average in the history of the national team — 0.68 goals per game. A frightening stat, thinking about the variety of names that went through the national team that needed more than 50 games to score the same or close amount.

Now, Nigeria has a serious problem; a major headache. After looking for a striker with solid bases and long-lasting potential for so long, they have not only found one, but more than five players vying to mark an era for the country thanks to their abilities. That is why we will carry out a data analysis comparing all these options and their respective styles of play while trying to determine which of them has the most suitable characteristics. We will do this analysis with the use of data and statistics.

Methodology

We will take Victor Osimhen as the focal point, with the Napoli striker having stood out enormously this season and performed in a spectacular way.

The characteristics of a player like the one in Luciano Spalletti‘s squad are clear — he is an especially dangerous player inside the box due to his intuition and intelligence in his off-the-ball movements to anticipate crosses, also possessing a dominant aerial presence, like his giant threat when he detects gaps between defenders and generates runs in-behind.

We will take the data, his style of play and his impact, to compare and get to know the Nigerian strikers who continue to stand out day after day in their respective competitions, showing their differences, weaknesses, strengths and potential. Just to clarify, this is not an article to read about who’s better or worse, or about finding ‘the next Osimhen’. Instead, this is just to discuss several exciting prospects that could rocket to the level that Osimhen is at right now.

Victor Boniface

Victor Boniface signed a four-year deal last summer when he was snapped up by Union Saint Gilloise from Bodo/Glimt for €2m. In Norway, he scored 23 goals in 66 games played, providing eight assists. So far, he has scored 20 in all competitions from 48 games this season.

After dropping out of the Europa League in the quarter-finals, he left a very positive record with six goals in 10 games, being one of the tournament’s top scorers. At 22 years old, the world is beginning to get to know him and it is clear that the data is beginning to show quite positive things on his part as well.

He is a very tall player, standing at 189cm and possessing quite a big, strong build, which he uses a lot to retain the ball. What he makes similar to Osimhen is his intuition for moving inside the box and his aerial threat. But he has different strengths.

Despite not being as quick and intense as Osimhen at seeking a pass behind defenders, Boniface is different in how he looks to create threat and be self-sufficient in seeking a shot or play for his team.

He is capable of receiving at long distances beyond the final third, breaking away from his line looking to receive. He has the strength to turn and run at speed with the ball, as well as offering dribbling, in tighter central zones or going to the wing where his playing style varies.

This doesn’t mean he’s a player with a high technique, nor is he ‘Firmino-esque’, dropping to create spaces constantly. In fact, he doesn’t have a high sensitivity in his touches. However, he shows he wants to keep improving his style of play with variation in what he can offer, combining his physical prowess as well.

Terem Moffi

In a season full of interesting names at Lorient, such as Enzo Le Fée or Dango Ouattara, who left the club for Bournemouth, their striker Terem Moffi was signed by OGC Nice in the winter transfer window after he’d enjoyed an excellent spell with Lorient that led him to scoring 13 goals before joining Les Aiglons.

He is probably the player most similar in playing style to the Nigerian star. Moffi is born to score goals. And for that, he must live in the danger zone, in the area of mistakes and precision. There, he walks the thin line of offside to lift his team from their seats with his speed and finishing.

Moffi is a player with little participation in his team’s circuits with the ball. However, he offers an immense amount of movement without it, in a dynamic and insatiable way that leads him to create spaces for both his teammates and himself, helping him to work his way to the goal several times this season.

As the data shows, Osimhen and Moffi are two players with quite similar styles. In fact, our xGOLD app, which looks for similarity between players, gives us a match of 89%.

Both retain little of the ball, generating few passes but are a total threat without it to later receive in the final metres, where they simply touch the ball and finish the plays. Terem Moffi shows great technique in his finishing as well as an elastic and flexible build to show different techniques to execute. He is one of the great candidates to fight for that starting position in the Nigerian team.

Akor Adams

We now fly back to Norway to bring Akor Adams to the fore. At the age of 23, he’s another striker to put the magnifying glass on within the Eliteserien — the same place from which Victor Boniface moved to Belgium.

Adams was signed by Sogndal from the OBOS Ligaen in 2018, Norway’s second tier, where it was not until 2010 that he demonstrated his abilities in front of the goal with the team, scoring 10 goals in order to fight a tough battle to avoid relegation to the third category. A year after that campaign, Lillestrom of the Eliteserien signed the striker for an undisclosed fee.

He’s a powerful striker who has an imposing physique. He handles the ball in a positive way while driving with it, being capable of destruction in the final third with his dribbling. He is self-sufficient to create new angles for finishing the play thanks to his body posture when receiving.

He creates movements into space extremely quickly and usually drops out to the wing or in between central defenders, constantly changing the direction of his runs to drag the mark and then confuse them, thus creating space and time for a possible subsequent shot.

He pulls off good dismarking movements inside the box and could be described as restless, mobile and dynamic — especially to attack the near post. He has an excellent aerial presence where he becomes strong due to his jumping, timing and physicality to hold up to rivals who try to move him.

The data shows that Adams possesses a better passing ability, receiving fewer passes than Osimhen, but doing more threatening things on the ball than the Napoli striker.

Gift Orban

From Norway to Belgium, a destination known for Akor Adams, it was the same for Gift Orban, who at the age of 20 dazzles the world because, after 15 games with Gent, he has scored 14 goals, including four in the same Belgium Pro League match on one occasion.

Like others, the Nigerian broke the net in the OBOS Ligaen. There, with Stabaek, Orban demonstrated his qualities in front of the goal to score 19 goals in 24 games, as well as provide seven assists for his record.

The Gent striker has shown to be a player with tremendous physical abilities that are not typical of a striker his age. The speed with which he carries the ball and can appear without itself to then shoot is a big threat, as is the power he adds to his executions.

However, Gift Orban has proven to be a striker far from what can be called traditional in this era of football. His ability to progress and create new spaces to generate shots with his dribbling is quite solid, which is complemented by his physique that gives him enough stamina to do it consistently.

Orban is the first on this list who shares little similarity with Osimhen beyond his incredible nose for goals.

He is not a tall player, but he’s a striker with great pace and physique as well, yet he is capable of playing facing the rival goal, driving the ball and penetrating the box to end with a pass or a shot. He’s a very direct player but with a lot more contact with the ball.

With a lot to improve, Orban and his young age make him one of the biggest names to fight for that striker position with Nigeria.

Josh Maja

Despite being born in England, Josh Maja decided to play for his parents’ nation, Nigeria, with whom he made his debut in 2019 but has not been called up again. A lot was due to the level that he was showing in recent years, which was not consistent with his quality, or for example, with what he has shown this season.

A graduate from the Sunderland youth academy — after some unsatisfactory spells in his own country, Maja tried his luck in France with Bordeaux where, at the age of 24, he has established himself in a great way, displaying his best game and potential, which will lead him to surely to return to play in a Top-five league in Europe in the coming months.

He currently registers 14 goals in 34 games played in all competitions. The Nigerian-Englishman has a number of resources of great elegance and explosiveness, which lead him, together with Gift Orban, to be one of the most different players, but with much to add to his team.

He seeks to drop from his zone constantly, as the heatmap shows. Despite the fact that several on this list of excellent and promising players tend to do so, Maja is a highly explosive dribbler, with quick footwork, balance and a lighter build that allows him to be slippery and receive between the lines, to later turn and attack the rival goal.

He displays a variety of finishing techniques, often looking to chip the ball, place it to the sides or take powerful shots occasionally. He has evolved into a fairly calm and composed player in this role, which allows him to be one of those names to watch for Nigeria in the striker position.

Conclusion

When Nigeria were searching for a striker to mark an era, and Victor Osimhen appeared within it, everything seemed resolved, but the reality is that the amount of names that are now around, raising the reputation of the nation and fighting for a position within the squad, is stellar. Even names like Junior Adamu or Noah Okafor, just to put an example, are others that could feature for the Nigerian national team as well.

Not only because of the similarity between some, but the amount of qualities that each one adds, beyond the fact that they may be similar, as well as Orban or Maja who contribute totally different things. A double-line in the attack like Boniface-Maja or Osimhen-Orban, for example, can be fully functional. It is now or never for the ‘Super Eagles’ to mark an era with such interesting names that they have to shake up rival goals.