Ideye Becomes 17th Nigerian To Score In La Liga, Two Golden Eaglets Coaches Make List

Tianjin Teda loanee Brown Ideye opened his goalscoring account for Malaga but could not prevent the La Liga strugglers from losing 2-1 to Valencia at Estadio La Rosaleda on Saturday evening.

On 27 minutes, the Super Eagles striker unorthodox close-range effort gave the Andalusian side the lead but two goals in the last ten minutes from Francis Coquelin and Daniel Parejo condemned José González's side to their 17th loss of the season.

Ideye has now scored in three of the top five leagues in Europe : La Liga, Ligue 1 and Premier League.

The former West Brom and Sochaux star is the seventeenth Nigerian in history to score for a club in the Spanish top-flight and the list includes Golden Eaglets coach Nduka Ugbade and U17 World Cup-winning manager Emmanuel Amuneke.

2016 Rio Olympics star Imoh Ezekiel and Watford loanee Isaac Success were omitted from Malaga's provisional roster vs Valencia.

Nigeria's Goalscorers in La Liga History

1) Ikechukwu Uche - 43 goals
2) Kalu Uche - 38
3) Finidi George - 33
4) Christopher Ohenhen - 29
5) Odion Ighalo - 13
6) Mutiu Adepoju - 11
7) Obafemi Martins - 7
8) Isaac Success - 7
9) Victor Obinna - 4
10) Bartholomew Ogbeche - 3
11) Nosa Igiebor - 2
12) Ramon Azeez - 2
13) Elderson Echiejile - 1
14) Rashidi Yekini - 1
15) Nduka Ugbade - 1
16) Emmanuel Amuneke - 1
17) Brown Ideye - 1

Ifeanyi Emmanuel