Reigning African Player of the Year Victor Osimhen has insisted that he’s not concerned about his seemingly goal drought in the ongoing 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), as Nigeria’s progression remains more vital to him.
The Super Eagles striker was the highest goalscorer in the competition’s qualifier games (with 10 goals) and was tipped by many to be amongst the contenders for the Golden Boot in Côte d’Ivoire.
True to his potential and reputation, Osimhen opened his AFCON 2023 goalscoring account in Nigeria’s first group stage game against Equatorial Guinea but since then the 25-year-old has resorted to helping the team through other positive contributions apart from getting his name on the scorer sheet.
“Those who know me, know I don’t put myself before the team. If my goal comes, they come,” the Napoli striker said after Angola’s ouster, Ahram reports.
“I want to help the team with goals of course, but if I am not scoring I am defending. If I am not defending I am fighting for them.
“I just want my team to be in the right mentality to win this tournament.
“It is a big prize for us, as an individual and also as a country. So I think we have the right mentality to make sure we bring the trophy home.”
Osimhen’s impact on Nigeria’s semi-finals reach
Nigeria are on course to reach an AFCON final for the first time in ten years, and should they eventually go on to win the competition, it’ll be the West African giant’s fourth AFCON trophy, all due to the help of versatile players like Victor Osimhen.
The ex-Lille striker, apart from his defensive solidity and workrate for the Super Eagles so far, won the penalty against Côte d’Ivoire in the group stage, forced the own goal against Guinea-Bissau, and assisted Ademola Lookman’s opener against Rigobert Song’s Indomitable Lions of Cameroon.
The Lagos-born striker is currently Nigeria’s third-highest goalscorer in history with 21 goals in 33 matches, on par with Yakubu Ayegbeni who has the same amount of goals, but from 58 matches. Rashidi Yekini (37 goals in 62 matches) and Segun Odegbami (22 goals in 47 matches) are the first and second respectively.
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