New Telegraph

Super Eagles General Coo rdinator, Pascal: Osimhen next to win African Footballer of the Year

…says striker’ll make Eagles win trophies

…insists Napoli forward better than Mane, Salah, Mahrez

The General Coordinator of the Super Eagles Patrick Pascal has rated one of his wards Victor Osimhen as the best player in Africa at the moment and could be the next African Footballer of the Year should he sustain his form. Osimhen has been one of the hottest strikers in the world as he leads the scorer chart in the Italian Serie A after hitting 12 goals and two assists for Napoli so far this term. Pascal who is also a former Eagles defender insisted that Osimhen has put himself in the early lead for the best award on the continent.

He said the major contenders including Egypt’s Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane of Senegal and Riyad Mahrez of Algeria have not hit the right strides this term and the Nigerian is far ahead of them in terms of statistics and general performance for clubs. The former Shooting Stars of Ibadan star said that he is not surprised about the progress that Osimhen has made in the past few years, insisting that he showed the potential to be one of the best players in the world since his Golden Eaglets days when he earned Nigeria her fifth U-17 FIFA World Cup.

“As someone who sees Osimhen at very close range, I am not surprised about the progress he has made so far. We all saw what he did at the U-17, U-20 and U-23 levels. He is now phenomenal and I can tell you that the striker has not even reached his full potential; he is still evolving and by the time he gets to that level, it will be hard to see players who would be better than him not only in Africa but even in the world.

“Mane is injured and he hasn’t been able to light up the German league; Salah hasn’t been the same player since Mane left Liverpoool and Mahrez is only trying to even secure regular playing time at Man City. When you talk about number 9, there is no one at the same level as Osimhen right now in Africa and that means if he maintains that our national team will benefit which could mean winning significant trophies with him.

“I can say it confidently that he could be one of the best in the world if he manages to get into a world-class club. We are happy that clubs like Manchester United, Real Madrid, Barcelona and the rest are after him, if he is signed to one of these outfits, then Osimhen can be compared with some of the best players in the world because he has the capacity to thrive at that level,” he said.

He added that the national team technical and backroom staff of Super Eagles are happy about the form of many of their players at the various clubs which will inevitably reflect in their performances when they turn up for the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers. He enjoined Nigerians to be patient with coach Jose Peseiro who he considers a disciplinarian who has not only restored discipline in the team but lifted the tactical awareness of the players.

“I have worked with nine different coaches in the national team and I think everyone comes with his own philosophy. I like the fact that Peseiro is a disciplinarian who also like to bring his players close to himself. We have seen that he hasn’t done badly with competitive games; we can excuse him for some of the results we have seen in friendly matches because we don’t always have most of the key players available for those ties. “We can see that we are having new players and they will need time to settle down in the national team and embrace the coach’s philosophy. I can assure you that by the time the coach gets the job to a certain level, we all will appreciate him,” he said.

Read Previous

We’re using sports to boost tourism in Edo State –Philip Shaibu

Read Next

Tantoloun Productions’ new project, I-HP.PS, premieres tomorrow

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *