Nigeria will play their 100th Africa Cup of Nations match on Monday against Guinea-Bissau. It will be a historic event!
They have the exciting chance to score their 140th goal in the competition since the nation started competing in 1963 as they celebrate reaching this milestone in their 20th finals appearance. The country will make its 20th finals participation in 2023 as Côte d’Ivoire.
Following William Ekong’s strike on Côte d’Ivoire, there will soon be another significant event. In an attempt to add to his one AFCON goal, striker Victor Osimhen will have the opportunity to follow in the footsteps of Victor Ikpeba, who scored Nigeria’s 70th goal in the 22nd finals that Nigeria and Ghana co-hosted on January 23, 2000 in Lagos, when Nigeria defeated Tunisia 4-2.
Seventy more goals later, and another Victor, Victor Osimhen, has the chance to score Nigeria’s 140th goal by beating the Wild Dogs. Ikpeba won African Player of the Year (1997), just like Victor Osimhen. The forward for Napoli SC really needs to add to his meagre goal total from the Africa Cup of Nations. He was injured and missed the 2021 finals in Cameroon, where Odion Ighalo dominated. The forward only made a brief appearance in the 2019 finals in Egypt.
Ighalo himself scored the country’s 130th goal when he struck against Tunisia in a 1-0 victory for third place in 2019. He was top scorer of the 2019 finals with five goals.
In the 4-1 victory against Mali in the 2013 Durban semi-final, captain Ahmed Musa of the current team tucked in Nigeria’s fourth goal, marking his 120th goal of the tournament.
Only “Goalsfather” Rashidi Yekini (of blessed memory) is among the six Nigerian players in the Hall of Fame of the Africa Cup of Nations best scorers, with two of them scoring double digits. Between 1988 and 1994, he scored 13 goals in four straight tournaments, taking home the title of top scorer in 1992 and 1994.
Jay-Jay Okocha, a playmaker, scored seven goals at the AFCON, including four goals to win the top scorer title in Tunisia in 2004. In 2004, he scored Nigeria’s 1,000th goal in a match against South Africa at Monastir, Tunisia.
The others are Emmanuel Emenike, Julius Aghahowa, and Olusegun Odegbami.
With a total of six goals, Odegbami tied Philip Omondi of Uganda and Opoku Afriyie of Ghana as the leading scorer in 1978 with three goals. He also shared the lead in goals scored during Nigeria’s 1980 victory with Khaled al-Abyad of Morocco (three goals).
Aghahowa also scored six goals in all, sharing the lead with Cameroonian players Patrick Mboma and Salomon Olembe in Mali in 2002 (he added three more goals when Nigeria co-hosted with Ghana in 2000).
Emmanuel Emenike scored four goals at the 2013 South Africa finals, sharing first place in the scoring column. Among them was a fierce free kick against Cote d’Ivoire during the legendary Rustenburg quarterfinal match.