Two Most Exciting Nigerian Footballers to Look Out For in 2016

Nigeria has produced some sensational players over the years, and here we take a look at the two most promising Nigerian players for 2016.

Nigeria has been the birthplace to a lot of talented footballers. Their U21s, U19s and U17s have always managed to impress in tournaments and scouts often visit their games in search of the next hottest property in world football.

In this list we’ll try to do the scouts’ job and predict which two young Nigerians have a bright future and a year to look forward to.

Kelechi Iheanacho

We start off with Manchester City’s 19 year old striker called Kelechi Iheanacho. He is one of 3 strikers the Citizens use in their rotation, with the other two being Sergio Aguero and Wilfried Bony.

City fans are well aware of his talents and have been imploring manager Manuel Pellegrini to give more minutes to the Nigerian recently.

And in truth, he probably should have done that. Kelechi’s 275 minutes on the pitch so far this season have been the least that he could have got from his manager, especially in light of Aguero’s constant injury problems and Bony’s poor season of several highs, but too many lows.

Iheanacho became famous with neutrals and opposing supporters when he scored the winner in the dying seconds of City’s away game against Crystal Palace.

Many thought that after that goal the Nigerian will spend some time enjoying his achievement and basking in the plaudits from media and fans.

However, Iheanacho is a very focused youngster and that is apparent from his comments after the Palace game, in which he said that even though scoring against Palace was a great moment for him, he still has a lot of work to do and that he expects to have a lot more moments like that in the future

He seems well aware of his talent and if his performances and comments are something to go by, he looks like he knows that he is ready for stardom.

His future might be very similar to the future of today’s Ronaldos, Hazards and Messis, if only he can fulfill his amazing potential.

Should he do that, he will be ready for the big matches and big pay checks and bonuses, just those at the best online casinos for African players.

His next impressive performance came in the League cup match against Palace (he seems to enjoy playing against them). In it he gave a Man of the Match performance by scoring once and making two assists. 

Since then, in the minutes he’s got, he scored in the quarterfinal of the same competition, only ten minutes after being introduced form the bench, and more recently, he scored against the Swans, albeit in more fortuitous circumstances.

In 2016, Iheanacho will rightly expect to be more involved in his team’s games. And with the calendar getting more congested, the need for Aguero to be rested in games, and Bony not impressing all that much, he could get more playing time sooner than he expects.

Alex Iwobi

Alex Iwobi is another promising Nigerian youngster plying his trade in the Premier League in a world class club, just like Iheanacho.

He is an up and coming winger, one of the many Arsenal have produced over the years. Like his countryman he is also 19 years old and is also a huge prospect for the future.

However, unlike Iheanacho who has only 2 players in front of him in the pecking order, Iwobi has 5 or 6.

With the expected return of Alexis Sanchez from injury, you would be forgiven for thinking that Iwobi, just like other players in front of him (Theo Walcott, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Joel Campbell) will be getting less and less playing time because of the Chilean.

Add in the mix the return of Serge Gnabry and Wellington Silva, who are coming back from loans, and you get a group of players fighting for two positions at best.

This means that, unfortunately, players like Iwobi will be very far from the first team in 2016.

Recently however, there has been speculation that Reading and other clubs from England’s second tier, are interested in taking Iwobi on loan from Arsenal.

This will probably be a smart move for both player and club. First of all, Arsenal will get to keep the player, but also give him chance to impress at a competitive club in the Championship.

And secondly, Iwobi will get regular minutes at a club which should match his level and potential.

Basically, Alex Iwobi made the correct decision when he chose to represent Nigeria on national level (he is probably guaranteed a role in the national team), and now he has to do the same and go out on loan.

It’s the best thing he can do at the moment and it’s the only way to make progress in 2016.