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Seven months into the 2022/23 league season in Europe, there have been a few Nigerian forwards who have been outstanding, setting new goals records for their respective teams. The likes of Victor Osimhen, Terem Moffi, Folarin Balogun, and Josh Maja have helped their teams with goals while some have failed in their goalscoring roles.
PUNCH Sports Extra’s JOHNNY EDWARD takes a look at some forward that holds the longest league goals drought.
Ahmed Musa (Sivasspor)
Ahmed Musa currently holds the record for the longest league goals drought by a Super Eagles forward playing in Europe.
The Super Eagles captain has gone over a year without scoring a league goal. The 31-year-old winger who is the most decorated player in the current Eagles squad having won the African Cup of Nations, three Russian league titles, one Russian Cup and two Russian Super Cup titles has gone 23 league games without finding the back of the net playing for two teams in recent months – Fatih Karagumruk and Sivasspor.
The last league goal Musa scored was against Istanbul Basaksehir on February 26, 2022. Musa is currently Nigeria’s most-capped player. The Sivasspor winger has made 106 appearances scoring 16 times. It remains to be seen if he will be selected for Nigeria’s 2023 AFCON qualifier against Guinea Bissau next month.
Simy Nwankwo (Benevento)
Simy Nwankwo’s career in the last two years has been a complete roller coaster ride. During the 2020/21 season, the Nigerian striker who was the sixth top scorer in the Serie A while playing for Crotone failed to reignite his scoring touch and has not scored a league goal in his last 26 outings in Italy’s second-tier division.
His last goal came against Spezia on October 16, 2021. Simy, who has scored 31 goals in his Serie A career so far, has been capped four times for the national team including two appearances at the 2018 World Cup. He is one of only two African players to have scored 20 goals in a Serie A season, a feat he pulled off with FC Crotone in the 2020/21 season – the other being Samuel Eto’o in 2010/11.
Isaac Success (Udinese)
Success ended up having a difficult five-year spell at Watford where he could only score seven goals and make five assists in 76 appearances before his departure.
The Nigerian striker who failed to score in the entire 2019/20 season is currently on an 11 months league goals drought at Udinese.
His last league goal for Udinese, who he penned a three-year deal with back in 2021, was on April 24, 2022 against Bologna.
So far this season, the 26-year-old striker is yet to find the back of the net in 24 Serie A games though he has made five assists for the Zebrette this term. It’s been five years since his last international call-up to the Super Eagles. Injuries and poor form have obviously hampered his recall back to the national team.
Samuel Kalu (Watford)
Kalu was one of the high prospective signings of Roy Hodgson (former Watford coach) when he joined Watford during the January transfer window in 2022.
The Nigerian winger signed a three-and-a-half year deal from Bordeaux.
He was seen as a player who would add a different dimension to the Hornets attack but Kalu has failed to capitalise on his impressive spell at Bordeaux before his switch.
Since his arrival at Vicarage Road, Kalu, who has won 17 caps for Nigeria, is yet to score a goal for the club in 13 games while he has made nine appearances this season for the Hornets in the English Championship.
He last scored a league goal in the colours of Bordeaux against Montpellier on September 22, 2021 spanning 524 days (17 months and 10 days).