Wilfred Ndidi was named the unofficial Nigerian Player of the Year at an awards ceremony on Sunday, January 12, seeing off competition from Victor Osimhen (Lille), Samuel Chukwueze (Villarreal), Odion Ighalo (Shanghai Greenland Shenhua) and William Troost-Ekong (Udinese) to win the accolade.

The Leicester City midfielder was impressive as always during the 2018-2019 season, playing every single game contested by the Foxes in the Premier League and became the third Nigerian player after Joseph Yobo and Victor Moses to achieve the feat.

On the international stage, the former Racing Genk star was a key member of the Super Eagles squad that finished third at the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations, going the distance in all the matches with the exception of the 2-0 loss to Madagascar in the group stage.

Reacting to winning the Ballers Award as best Nigerian player, Ndidi tweeted : "It's a great privilege to win Nigeria's best footballer of the year.

"I couldn't have done this by myself, I want to thank my teammates both in the National team and at Leicester City. Thank you to the organisers of The Ballers Awards and all the fans. Thank you".

Match of the Day pundit and Barcelona legend, Gary Lineker congratulated Ndidi on winning the award, saying the midfielder thoroughly deserved the prize.

Lineker retweeted Ndidi's post with an accompanying comment : "Officially a Baller. Much deserved. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻".

Ifeanyi Emmanuel