SO WHICH PLAYER WILL CHALLENGE YEKINI'S GOAL RECORD FOR NGA

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SO WHICH PLAYER WILL CHALLENGE YEKINI'S GOAL RECORD FOR NGA

Post by akamoke »

Fellows

I was just following the ..."MOHAMMED SALLAH IS ONLY A CLUB FOOTBALLER" thread and someone mentioned that at 37 goals he is challenging for the Egyptian record (and I think all things equal, he will break that record)

37 is also the number of goals Yekini has scored for Nigeria

It is quite revealing that the second highest goal scorer for Nigeria of all time is the great Segun Odegbami who last played in the early 80s then there is Yakubu

Can people share their thoughts as to why we have not really had sharp shooting strikers that are dependable like Etoo, Drogba, Aubemeyang, McCarthy, Weah

We have touted Ike Uche, Kanu, Ighalo, Agali but they have either been injury plagued, haven't lived up to the hype or (something I feel is more an issue), we have not let the players settle into a role or playing style for them to give their best. Too much chopping and changing after one indifferent game and we have a new "messiah"

I believe that if we let Musa play in his striking role and are consistent with him, he will challenge and break that record

Welcome your thoughts
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Re: SO WHICH PLAYER WILL CHALLENGE YEKINI'S GOAL RECORD FOR

Post by Cristao II »

Ahmed Musa and I hope he does so.
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Re: SO WHICH PLAYER WILL CHALLENGE YEKINI'S GOAL RECORD FOR

Post by Kabalega »

Obafemi Martins :D
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Re: SO WHICH PLAYER WILL CHALLENGE YEKINI'S GOAL RECORD FOR

Post by Damunk »

akamoke wrote:Fellows

I was just following the ..."MOHAMMED SALLAH IS ONLY A CLUB FOOTBALLER" thread and someone mentioned that at 37 goals he is challenging for the Egyptian record (and I think all things equal, he will break that record)

37 is also the number of goals Yekini has scored for Nigeria

It is quite revealing that the second highest goal scorer for Nigeria of all time is the great Segun Odegbami who last played in the early 80s then there is Yakubu

Can people share their thoughts as to why we have not really had sharp shooting strikers that are dependable like Etoo, Drogba, Aubemeyang, McCarthy, Weah

We have touted Ike Uche, Kanu, Ighalo, Agali but they have either been injury plagued, haven't lived up to the hype or (something I feel is more an issue), we have not let the players settle into a role or playing style for them to give their best. Too much chopping and changing after one indifferent game and we have a new "messiah"

I believe that if we let Musa play in his striking role and are consistent with him, he will challenge and break that record

Welcome your thoughts
Good question which brings up again my similar question posed some months ago. Some illuminative answers in there
'Why Was Yekini So Special?'
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=289870

Was thinking along the same lines again this morning when reading Kongi's 'Golden Generation' thread. With all the exciting young talent coming through in various positions, there do not appear to be any central goleadors on the horizon.

Awoniyi, Success and Osimhien are all still a long way off from the finished article. Agreed though, it is still early days for them.

Looks like Ahmed Musa is our leading goalscorer at the moment but no way do I see him touching Yekini's record.
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Re: SO WHICH PLAYER WILL CHALLENGE YEKINI'S GOAL RECORD FOR

Post by john12 »

I think we actually replaced yekini in the likes of Obagoal and aghawonder but our biggest wahala has been “consistency” most Nigerian strikers start scoring goals for a year then have a “goal drough” fans will start suggesting they discard those strikers instead of giving them chances we do not understand that patience, perseverance and time in this country and we’re quick to discard our boys after any drought because there no way anyone will tell me 2005 (Obagoal) wasn’t as good as yekini. Another reason is “professionalism” the moment our players start progressing, unprofessional behavior begins and their career starts regressing
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Re: SO WHICH PLAYER WILL CHALLENGE YEKINI'S GOAL RECORD FOR

Post by marutimon »

Iheanacho's goal return suggests he would be a good bet.
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Re: SO WHICH PLAYER WILL CHALLENGE YEKINI'S GOAL RECORD FOR

Post by kalani JR »

john12 wrote:I think we actually replaced yekini in the likes of Obagoal and aghawonder but our biggest wahala has been “consistency” most Nigerian strikers start scoring goals for a year then have a “goal drough” fans will start suggesting they discard those strikers instead of giving them chances we do not understand that patience, perseverance and time in this country and we’re quick to discard our boys after any drought because there no way anyone will tell me 2005 (Obagoal) wasn’t as good as yekini. Another reason is “professionalism” the moment our players start progressing, unprofessional behavior begins and their career starts regressing
Obagoal was the biggest false dawn for the Eagles after Agali. The only striker who overall acquitted himself well post Yekini was Yakubu. Strikers have mostly been disappointing for us, there is a reason I think Okocha has been our best scorer in tournaments since 2000.
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Re: SO WHICH PLAYER WILL CHALLENGE YEKINI'S GOAL RECORD FOR

Post by Tbite »

Nigeria's goal record is very strange.

For a country of our stature, our best have not been all that consistent. The likes of Martins, Yak, Kanu etc. did not score as many as they should have, being our legends and all. Forget goal ratios, lets just talk in absolute terms. Why haven't we had strikers that go the distance? Why do we rotate and swap strikers as often as we do, why did guys like Ike Uche and Emenike just fall off the face of the planet.

Our goal record is very very very strange. Even Yekini's goal tally is nice, but at this stage we should at least one striker with 50 goals for GWG.
Buhari, whose two terms thankfully ground to a constitutional halt in May. (One thing both democracies have going for them is that their leaders, however bad, have only two terms to swing the wrecking ball.) Under Buhari, growth per head also plunged to 0. An economic agenda drawn from the dusty pages of a 1970s protectionist handbook failed to do the trick. Despite Buhari’s promise to tame terrorism and criminality, violence flourished. Despite his reputation for probity, corruption swirled. FT
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Re: SO WHICH PLAYER WILL CHALLENGE YEKINI'S GOAL RECORD FOR

Post by Tbite »

This has been one of the most puzzling problems for me regarding Nigerian football for a very long time. You pick some random country that you think will be comparable with Nigeria, their all time goal scorers record will look better than ours, more consistency.

Just think of any random country in your head that is comparable to Nigeria and check.
Buhari, whose two terms thankfully ground to a constitutional halt in May. (One thing both democracies have going for them is that their leaders, however bad, have only two terms to swing the wrecking ball.) Under Buhari, growth per head also plunged to 0. An economic agenda drawn from the dusty pages of a 1970s protectionist handbook failed to do the trick. Despite Buhari’s promise to tame terrorism and criminality, violence flourished. Despite his reputation for probity, corruption swirled. FT
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Re: SO WHICH PLAYER WILL CHALLENGE YEKINI'S GOAL RECORD FOR

Post by ohenhen1 »

Awoniyi or Osimhen.
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Re: SO WHICH PLAYER WILL CHALLENGE YEKINI'S GOAL RECORD FOR

Post by Enugu II »

Tbite wrote:Nigeria's goal record is very strange.

For a country of our stature, our best have not been all that consistent. The likes of Martins, Yak, Kanu etc. did not score as many as they should have, being our legends and all. Forget goal ratios, lets just talk in absolute terms. Why haven't we had strikers that go the distance? Why do we rotate and swap strikers as often as we do, why did guys like Ike Uche and Emenike just fall off the face of the planet.

Our goal record is very very very strange. Even Yekini's goal tally is nice, but at this stage we should at least one striker with 50 goals for GWG.
Tbite

I agree completely and I think you have the answer already - the constant changing of players. This is also the reason that we have only two players who have made a century of appearances for Nigeria - Enyeama at 101 and Yobo at 100. Strange, very strange.
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Re: SO WHICH PLAYER WILL CHALLENGE YEKINI'S GOAL RECORD FOR

Post by ohenhen1 »

The problem is not the amount of cap. Musa will end up with more caps than Yekini. The problem is Nigeria is not producing quality play makers. We don't score a lot of goals.


Yekini played 58 games for Nigeria. Musa has already played 74 games.
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Re: SO WHICH PLAYER WILL CHALLENGE YEKINI'S GOAL RECORD FOR

Post by Tbite »

The problem is both.

37 goals is great, but it's not really earth shattering.

You want players with great ability, with great service AND playing for many many years. That is what we want. We don't want 1/3, 2/3, we want all those 3 things.

What good is it if we have a player with 0.8 goals per game, but drops out of the NT after 1-2 years?

We want consistency in every meaning of the word. Whether that be in terms of service, whether that be in terms of inherent ability, whether that be in terms of call ups.

One of the things that made Enyeama such a legend was the fact that he did it for us again and again and again, that is what we want.

but of course, naturally these things are even related. Presumably, we would be less inclined to chop and change if we had players with better inherent ability, and with better service. But there is also the point, that how much does chopping and changing contribute to the impediment of momentum in the NT. Playing in football is as much about understanding, momentum and chemistry, as it is about those other things like ability and service.

What is irrefutable is these things are related in some way.
Buhari, whose two terms thankfully ground to a constitutional halt in May. (One thing both democracies have going for them is that their leaders, however bad, have only two terms to swing the wrecking ball.) Under Buhari, growth per head also plunged to 0. An economic agenda drawn from the dusty pages of a 1970s protectionist handbook failed to do the trick. Despite Buhari’s promise to tame terrorism and criminality, violence flourished. Despite his reputation for probity, corruption swirled. FT
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Re: SO WHICH PLAYER WILL CHALLENGE YEKINI'S GOAL RECORD FOR

Post by Tbite »

Enugu II wrote:
Tbite wrote:Nigeria's goal record is very strange.

For a country of our stature, our best have not been all that consistent. The likes of Martins, Yak, Kanu etc. did not score as many as they should have, being our legends and all. Forget goal ratios, lets just talk in absolute terms. Why haven't we had strikers that go the distance? Why do we rotate and swap strikers as often as we do, why did guys like Ike Uche and Emenike just fall off the face of the planet.

Our goal record is very very very strange. Even Yekini's goal tally is nice, but at this stage we should at least one striker with 50 goals for GWG.
Tbite

I agree completely and I think you have the answer already - the constant changing of players. This is also the reason that we have only two players who have made a century of appearances for Nigeria - Enyeama at 101 and Yobo at 100. Strange, very strange.
Low caps, relatively few goals scored, these are things we need to examine.

It would also be interesting to know in which stages do we perform better, and in which stages do we under-perform.

I am thinking anecdotally, for example that Nigeria has often laboured against relatively weak teams in qualifiers. In recent times, we have seen many of our neighbours with high scoring in qualifiers. Do we score more (relatively) in the competition proper?

We might even consider the way our team is setup, does Nigeria distribute its goals more across the 10 outfield players than some other countries? Are we scoring fewer goals per game than other countries ranked 20-55 in the FIFA ranking?

but back to the question of WHO. I have been hoping that someone would step up, but to be honest I do not see it coming. When it happens, it will be a surprise to me.
Buhari, whose two terms thankfully ground to a constitutional halt in May. (One thing both democracies have going for them is that their leaders, however bad, have only two terms to swing the wrecking ball.) Under Buhari, growth per head also plunged to 0. An economic agenda drawn from the dusty pages of a 1970s protectionist handbook failed to do the trick. Despite Buhari’s promise to tame terrorism and criminality, violence flourished. Despite his reputation for probity, corruption swirled. FT
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Re: SO WHICH PLAYER WILL CHALLENGE YEKINI'S GOAL RECORD FOR

Post by folem »

Tbite wrote:This has been one of the most puzzling problems for me regarding Nigerian football for a very long time. You pick some random country that you think will be comparable with Nigeria, their all time goal scorers record will look better than ours, more consistency.

Just think of any random country in your head that is comparable to Nigeria and check.
What is the all-time goal scoring record for Algeria, Tunisia, Senegal, DR Congo, South Africa, Colombia, Paraguay, Ecuador, Russia, Romania, Norway, Scotland, ...?
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Re: SO WHICH PLAYER WILL CHALLENGE YEKINI'S GOAL RECORD FOR

Post by Eaglezbeak »

The first thing you must remember is that a player must play abroad before he is trusted to play for Nigeria but Yekini didn’t have to wait,Nigeria of late stumble across players once they make it in Europe at one point Obifemi Martins wasn’t heard of until he broke into the first team at Inter Milan.
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Re: SO WHICH PLAYER WILL CHALLENGE YEKINI'S GOAL RECORD FOR

Post by kalani JR »

folem wrote:
Tbite wrote:This has been one of the most puzzling problems for me regarding Nigerian football for a very long time. You pick some random country that you think will be comparable with Nigeria, their all time goal scorers record will look better than ours, more consistency.

Just think of any random country in your head that is comparable to Nigeria and check.
What is the all-time goal scoring record for Algeria, Tunisia, Senegal, DR Congo, South Africa, Colombia, Paraguay, Ecuador, Russia, Romania, Norway, Scotland, ...?
Are these real countries?
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Re: SO WHICH PLAYER WILL CHALLENGE YEKINI'S GOAL RECORD FOR

Post by 1naija »

Yekini scored a lot of goals for Nigeria in Africa. We don't need any player that will challenge that record. We need players that will set new World cup scoring record.
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Re: SO WHICH PLAYER WILL CHALLENGE YEKINI'S GOAL RECORD FOR

Post by Tbite »

folem wrote:
Tbite wrote:This has been one of the most puzzling problems for me regarding Nigerian football for a very long time. You pick some random country that you think will be comparable with Nigeria, their all time goal scorers record will look better than ours, more consistency.

Just think of any random country in your head that is comparable to Nigeria and check.
What is the all-time goal scoring record for Algeria, Tunisia, Senegal, DR Congo, South Africa, Colombia, Paraguay, Ecuador, Russia, Romania, Norway, Scotland, ...?
Colombia is only really a relevant footballing nation in less than 20 years! One could argue that they have only recently surpassed Nigeria.

There is a reason why four of their all time scorers are still active. With Nigeria, only Musa is really still in it. Martins won't be called up.

Algeria's record is better than ours. Yekini is like an outlier, whereas in Algeria you had five players hitting that quarter century mark. Yekini is the ONLY player in Nigeria to do so. Tunisia's record is a carbon copy of Nigeria's, not that I would count them as comparable to us, but whatever. In the same vein Senegal are barely comparable, that 2002 fairy-tale run is about the only thing that brings them into the discussion. Even so, their record is only marginally worse than ours, but for how long? 3 of their top scorers are active, one being Mane!

South Africa's record is comparable to ours. As EII suggested, this would not be because they had the better players. They just used their strikers more, more consistency.

You have selected a list of countries that I would argue are mostly lesser than Nigeria, with the exception of the rare spark here and there, but I have indulged you mostly.

When you compare Nigeria to its peers such as Cameroon, Algeria, Egypt, Mexico, Australia etc. , the pattern is clear. Even if you handicap many of these countries, such as discounting Eto'o's role in Cameroon, you still find that they have at least 3 players with a top record.

Nigeria has only 1 player above the 1/4 century mark! And nobody has even come close to reaching that mark in half a decade.

One of the only countries that is comparable, with a clear worse record, is Ghana. Asamoah Gyan is simply an even bigger outlier than Yekini; all their other strikers have been average.

Anyway I have argued a very bold case for a reason - I don't need to be right on every little nitpicked thing, the reason I have done so, is to argue that Nigeria's goal-scoring record is irrefutably poor.
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Re: SO WHICH PLAYER WILL CHALLENGE YEKINI'S GOAL RECORD FOR

Post by marutimon »

Tbite wrote:There is a reason why four of their all time scorers are still active. With Nigeria, only Musa is really still in it. Martins won't be called up.
Iheanacho has 8 goals, is almost 22. He's had a poor goalscoring year, but he can easily rise to beat the record. Especially with his recent uptick in club form.
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Re: SO WHICH PLAYER WILL CHALLENGE YEKINI'S GOAL RECORD FOR

Post by ogasir »

Iheanacho looks likely.
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Re: SO WHICH PLAYER WILL CHALLENGE YEKINI'S GOAL RECORD FOR

Post by akamoke »

I think as long as we normalize "holding strikers" we are not going to go far in the goal scoring department . This is why we tolerated Kanu and Ighalo as "strikers" for long. In addition, our non emphasis on Set pieces adds to our goal woes.

All this in addition to not letting strikers settle
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Re: SO WHICH PLAYER WILL CHALLENGE YEKINI'S GOAL RECORD FOR

Post by Damunk »

akamoke wrote:I think as long as we normalize "holding strikers" we are not going to go far in the goal scoring department . This is why we tolerated Kanu and Ighalo as "strikers" for long. In addition, our non emphasis on Set pieces adds to our goal woes.

All this in addition to not letting strikers settle
Ighalo was allowed to settle, but maybe he was a 'holding' striker rather than a goal-poacher. Same with Ideyen.
King Kanu was an enigma. Was he even a striker in the true sense. Its hard to tell.
The only genuine strikers I can think of are Yekini, Martins and Aiyegbeni.

Personally, I think we have a problem esp as there appear to be real gems emerging in other departments. But central strikers?
Hmmm.....
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