Goal Nigeria Player Of The Year Nominee: Odion Ighalo

There are a number of reasons why, without doubt, Odion Ighalo has been Nigeria ’s standout footballer in 2015.

We know the numbers: his debut season in the Premier League, widely believed to be the best in the world (no, we will not have this argument), has yielded 12 goals, and this before Christmas. At this canter, he is on pace for 26 by the end of 2015/2016, a figure which would be a record for a Nigerian footballer in Europe’s top five leagues.

This is all the more remarkable because there is not much precedent of a player so prolific after promotion to the Premier League.

Jamie Vardy has been the toast of England, and rightly so in light of his record-setting scoring run. However, he only scored five times in 34 

league appearances last term, and even though he laid on 10 assists, there was little seismic about his first season.

Ighalo, on the other hand, has made his mark on both divisions with similar immediacy, almost blurring the lines between the English Championship, a division regarded as a muddy, unglamorous slog, and its glitzy, daintier stepsister. The former Udinese man has seduced both with equal fervour, leaving behind a trail of trembling knees and wanton carnage.

He scored 20 times in the English second tier, a 

vital return as Watford surged to the Premier 

League for the first time in eight years. After 

spending three years on loan in Spain with 

Granada, it was a statement: Ighalo was ready 

to put down roots.

His goals have been refreshingly diverse in type: from headers to rockets, hooked volleys to rounding the goalkeeper. His 25 goals in the calendar year is unmatched across all tiers of English football, and he is already the top scorer for the Hornets in a Premier League season.

 

Ighalo |  The records just keep on falling

The one lingering doubt as to his quality was answered emphatically last weekend, as the 26-year-old delivered his first big performance against one of England’s traditional top-four sides, helping the Hornets to devastate Liverpool. His rap-sheet before the game was marked with some of the less fashionable sides in the English top-flight – Sunderland, Norwich, Newcastle, West Ham, Bournemouth, Swansea and Everton are hardly the cream of an admittedly blighted Premier League crop this season.

With the national team, Ighalo’s impact has been undeniably less explosive. Having taken to European football so naturally, one might have been forgiven for expecting an entrance of similar brashness. This has not been the case though, and already a few alarm bells have begun to sound in the minds of wary Nigerian fans.

In spite of that, he does have two international goals to his name in less than five starts. It has not been an inspired entry, but it has not been an unmitigated disaster either. It is also not uncommon to see a player struggle at international level; the world’s two best players, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, have at some point(s) in their career found it difficult to translate club form when donning national team colours.

It's surely only a matter of time until Ighalo begins to deliver for the Super Eagles...

It is also worth noting that 2015 has not been a great year by any metric for Nigeria in the international football arena. Indeed, this brings into perfect focus one other reason why Ighalo is so clearly head and shoulders above the rest: the competition is not exactly fierce.

Perhaps only Moses Simon can match him, and the 20-year-old suffered a major downturn in form in the second half of the year, having powered Gent to history. While he has come into his own with the national team and grown into a central figure, Simon simply cannot match Ighalo for sheer volume.

To simply attribute his rise to a weak field would be a huge disservice to the Watford man though. Were he ahead by only a slight margin, one might be tempted to do just that. By so completely blowing everyone else out of the water, it is clear that while the rest of the field stands still, Ighalo has managed to find a new level. There really is no one more deserving of the Goal Nigeria Player of the Year award.

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