Nigerian sensational striker Victor Osimhen is in the running for the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS) men’s world best player award for 2023.
Osimhen is nominated for the prestigious award after an excellent campaign for club and country this year, scoring important goals on the field of play.
He championed Napoli to their first Serie A title after 33 years and also won the league’s top scorer gong with 26 goals.
He became the first African in the 125-year history of the Serie A to win the golden boot award and also became Napoli’s first player to finish as top scorer in the league since Diego Maradona in the 1987/88 season.
His heroic performances did not go unnoticed as he was adjudged the Best African International Player 2023 at the Ghana Football Awards.
Osimhen was included in Serie A Team of the Year, 2022-23 season after his goals propelled his club to the league crown in over three decades.
The 24-year-old caught the interest of a host of top European clubs after a remarkable campaign in the past season, but Napoli owner, Aurelio De Laurentiis stood his ground and stated the Nigerian is not for sale.
He recently won the AIC Serie A Footballer and Italian Footballers’ Association Player of the Year awards in Italy.
On the home front, he scored ten goals to end as the top scorer during the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers as Nigeria’s Super Eagles book a spot at the event in Côte d’Ivoire next year.
On Monday night in Marrakech, Morocco he was crowned Africa Player of the Year Award winner, seeing off challenges from Mohamed Salah of Egypt and Morocco’s Achraf Hakimi.
In doing so, the striker is now the first Nigerian footballer to land the biggest African individual accolade since Kanu Nwankwo in 1999.
For the IFFHS top prize, Osimhen, 24, is up against Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Erling Haaland, Harry Kane and 20 others.
The awards ceremony will be held in January 2024.
