There is really no reason other than the convention for international teams to announce the positions of the players the manager has called up. Nevertheless, it is a convention that most teams follow.
This is probably because the composition of the selection per position is usually hardly worth mentioning. However, Germany and Spain turned it into a talking point by making it common to select so many midfielders that there was hardly any room – or even need – for attackers. This is now so extreme for Hansi Flick’s side that the German squads are now listed with midfielders and forwards together.
Nigeria’s current squad, meanwhile, attracted attention for another reason. It is so top-heavy that Nigeria manager José Peseiro has hardly selected any midfielders, simply because there are too many top strikers who cannot be left out. We are in the middle of a golden age for the Nigerian number nine.
Peseiro, a former manager of FC Porto, Sporting CP (twice) and SC Braga (twice), and once assistant to Carlos Queiroz at Real Madrid, has selected an incredibly attacking squad for the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations qualifying match with São Paulo . Tome and Principe.
Victor Osimhen (Napoli), Taiwo Awoniyi (Nottingham Forest), Victor Boniface (Bayer Leverkusen), Kelechi Iheanacho (Leicester City), Gift Orban (Gent) and Moses Simon (Nantes) have all made the switch as centre-forwards. Wide forwards Samuel Chukwueze (AC Milan) and Ademola Lookman (Atalanta) add further firepower to the frontline, while the midfielder list consists of just four players.
Among the host of attacking talents selected in this squad were Emmanuel Dennis of Nottingham Forest, Paul Onuachu of Southampton, Terem Moffi of Nice, Josh Maja of West Brom, Cyriel Dessers of Rangers and Akor Adams, Montpellier’s exciting summer signing – who scored once – minute and 42 seconds on his Ligue 1 debut – none of them made it into the current squad. Oh, and that includes former Leicester City striker and Nigeria’s greatest player of all time, Ahmed Musa (108 caps), who until recently captained the side. Those names are a bit less glamorous than the chosen names, but as a backup for the eight first-choice attackers in the latest squad, they are quite good options.
In Osimhen, Awoniyi and Boniface, Nigeria has three in-form number nines who regularly play and score in a top European competition. In Simon they have a 58-cap forward who can play across the front line and who has played in the top five European leagues for more than five seasons. In Iheanacho they have an experienced centre-forward who has played in the Premier League for the eight seasons before the current season. Orban is still just 21 years old but is crushing his life in the Belgian Pro League and has been linked with a move to Tottenham Hotspur all summer.
That really is a remarkable level of depth. Nigeria currently has a firepower that even the best club teams can only dream of.
Since the start of last season, midfielders and strikers from just nine other countries have scored more goals than Nigerians (120) in Europe’s top five leagues. Nigeria is ahead of several major football countries in this ranking, including Belgium (100), the Netherlands (93), Denmark (72), Croatia (55) and all other African countries.
Nigerian midfielders and forwards also score faster than most other countries, with a goal every 274 minutes. That’s the second most common figure among the 36 countries with midfielders or strikers playing more than 10,000 minutes on the pitch in that time, behind Norway (one goal every 238 minutes).
Nigeria’s numbers are so good because of the number of players who score consistently, but also because there aren’t that many midfielders who don’t score goals in Europe’s top leagues. Nigerians have played 32,843 minutes in midfield or attack, compared to 19,956 minutes by the Norwegians, with Norway’s goal tally largely offset by Erling Haaland (42 goals), Martin Ødegaard (17) and Alexander Sørloth (14). Only one other Norwegian midfielder or striker – making a total of four – has scored five goals since the start of the 2022/2023 season, while nine Nigerian midfielders and strikers have scored five goals or more. Orban has now scored seventeen goals in twenty league games in Belgium.
Despite amassing almost 13,000 more minutes than the Norwegians, there are only eight Nigerian midfielders or forwards who have not scored a single goal in that time, compared to eleven players from Norway. It fits with the theme that Nigeria produces more players who threaten the opponent’s goal and are good enough to play in Europe’s biggest leagues than midfielders whose primary job is to move the ball, create for others and create their own goal to help protect.
Nigeria’s skewed data set is reflected in the imbalance in Peseiro’s latest squad: there are far more high-quality goalscorers than midfielders.
Why is Nigeria suddenly producing so many top-class attackers while falling short elsewhere?
“Some of it is just a coincidence,” says Nigerian sports journalist Solace Chukwu Opta analyst. “But some of it is actually a result of the fact that there is such poor youth coaching in Nigeria. That sounds strange to say, but what that means is that when scouts come to Nigeria, it is easier to notice what the strikers are good at; things like explosive movements. Midfielders and sometimes even defenders play more cerebral roles, and because players in Nigeria are not as well coached as elsewhere, attackers stand out more.”
Chukwu says young forwards who grow up in Nigeria are more likely to develop the raw traits needed to succeed abroad.
“Nigeria has no clear plan to develop its own players,” he says. “So scouts will be looking for speed, athleticism, things that can be easily translated to a different environment, and attackers will be picked up more often because of that. Then they move to Europe and explode from there.”
Convincing players who were born in England or grew up with Nigerian parents to play for Nigeria has also improved the overall quality of their squad. Not only has this increased their options up front, with London-born Maja committing to Nigeria for example, it has also ensured that technically gifted players in other positions, who have received football training in an elite environment at an English club, now creating opportunities for the number nines of the Nigerian elite. Lookman, Alex Iwobi and Joe Aribo, who all grew up in London, are the most prominent of those players.
It promises to be exciting times for the Super Eagles. One of the highest scorers in four of Europe’s top five leagues in 2023-2024 is a Nigerian, with Osimhen (3 goals in Serie A), Awoniyi (3, Premier League), Boniface (4, Bundesliga) and Adams ( 3, League 1). ) who are all starting the new campaign in glowing form. The only other countries with three or more players to score at least three goals this season are France and England, who clearly have far more resources than Nigeria.
Osimhen is the star of this new team, having guided Napoli to a historic title win last season, and he is sure to join one of Europe’s super clubs soon. His freedom of movement and ability to get into dangerous positions are his great strengths, but his finishing – both with his feet and his head – is his greatest asset. Since the start of the 2022-2023 season, only Haaland (34) and Kylian Mbappé (29) have scored more non-penalty goals in Europe’s top five leagues than Osimhen (26), who exceeds his expected non-penalty goals by 5.25 (a better figure than Mbappé’s 5.07).
Chukwu says Awoniyi is “slightly less refined” than the other options available to Nigeria, but the fact he is “very coachable” means it is no surprise to see him flourish in the Premier League at Nottingham Forest.
However, according to Chukwu, Boniface is Nigeria’s most exciting striker because there is more to his game than the others. He has started his life at Leverkusen in some fashion, with four goals in three games. Of the thirteen players in Europe’s top five leagues to have scored four or more goals so far, Boniface is the only one to also have two assists to his name.
“He really does everything you would want, from a striker to a very high level,” Chukwu says of a player who has just received his first call-up on the international stage. “He is a real complete striker who can take charge himself and also make other attackers look good when he plays in a system with two attackers.”
That’s something Peseiro has of course had to take into account given the wealth of attackers he has to choose from, but apart from briefly and unsuccessfully testing a 3-5-2 formation, he has largely stuck to playing with one in front. The rise of Boniface may now force him to reconsider.
“It’s a little different now than it was a year ago,” Chukwu said. “I get the impression that Peseiro is not averse to a new experiment [with two up front]but it’s inevitable that some really good players will miss out.
“It’s a good problem to have up front, but there’s also a lack of depth in midfield and not many good options in the side, so it’s quite a conundrum for the manager. If he fails, people will wonder why he didn’t do more with all this talent that was handed to him on a plate.”
It’s now almost thirty years since Nigeria captured the world’s imagination at USA ’94, while most recently they last won the Africa Cup of Nations more than a decade ago in 2013. Qatar World Cup last year and also failed to qualify for three of the last six AFCON tournaments. That represents a period of real underachievement for the world’s sixth most populous country. With the highest gross domestic product in Africa and almost 100 million more inhabitants than any other African country, the ingredients for some form of success should certainly be there.
They have already qualified for January’s AFCON tournament, and given the wealth of talent they have up front, is it time to start dreaming of a return to glory?
“I would say underachievement has been a problem in Nigeria for a long time,” says Chuwku. “We’ve always had a lot of talent – so much potential to be great – but it never quite happens. If the discussion were purely about how much talent Nigeria can produce, the sky is the limit, especially when it comes to strikers.
“When it comes to creating the right conditions for these fantastic players to flourish – as they do in Europe – that’s a whole different story.”
ALI TWEEDALE / AUTHOR, MATT SISNEROS / DESIGNER