Norway Is Most Preferred Destination For Nigerian Footballers, Top Five Revealed By CIES

Published: November 15, 2019

According to information from CIES Football Observatory, Norway is the most preferred destination for Nigerian footballers.

Of the 327 expatriate Nigerian footballers in 65 associations out of 98, 24 ply their trade in the Norwegian Leagues.

Samuel Adegbenro, Babajide David (both Rosenborg), Jack Ipalibo (Strømsgodset), Akeem Latifu (Mjøndalen), Ifeanyi Matthew (Lillestrom), Leke James (Molde), Igho Ogbu (Sogndal) and Afeez Aremu are some of the Nigerian professional footballers that played for Norwegian clubs in 2019.

Nigeria national-teamers Fegor Ogude, Anthony Ujah and Nosa Igiebor plus former Super Eagles captain John Obi Mikel began their careers abroad with Norwegian clubs before transferring to bigger clubs in Europe.

Surprisingly, Nigerian players fancy playing in Bangladesh and the South Asian country is the second-joint importer of Nigerian players along with Scandinavian country Sweden (16).

At least fourteen Nigerian players are on the books of Portuguese clubs including Super Eagles stars Mikel Agu, Nwankwo Obiorah, Tyronne Ebuehi, and Uche Agbo.

Turkey and Latvia are joint-fifth on the list of Nigerian expatriate footballers, with thirteen Nigerian players each playing in the countries.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel