Osimhen, nine other highest-goal-scoring Super Eagles’ strikers

The in-form Napoli striker was last week nominated for the 2023 Ballon D’or Awards scheduled to be held in December.

The 24-year-old is one of the four African players vying to win one of the most prestigious awards in the football world since George Weah achieved the feat in 1995.

In this report, PUNCH examines the all-time Super Eagles’ leading goal scorers in an ascending order.

1. Rashidi Yekini

Rashidi Yekini leads the Top 10 Super Eagles’ all-time top scorers list

Yekini is by far and away Nigeria’s all-time leading top scorer with 37 goals, at least 14 more than anyone else so far and many believe his record will remain unbroken as he sits top of the list of Super Eagles’ all-time highest goalscorers.

Yekini scored 37 goals in 58 games at an impressive ratio of 0.63 goals per game. This is the bar that every Nigerian footballer has looked up to since Yekini retired from the Nigerian national team in 1998 having debuted in 1984.

2. Segun Odegbami

Segun Odegbami is popularly known as the ‘Mathematician’ because of his eyes for goals.

He scored 23 goals in 46 games for the Nigerian national team within a shorter period of time compared to the rest of the top ten. His national team career lasted from 1976 to 1982.

3. Yakubu Aiyegbeni

Yakubu Aiyegbeni is also one of the top 10 leading Super Eagles all-time top scorers and he is famous for his miss against South Korea at the 2010 World Cup.

He was a certified goal machine and ice-cold finisher. Yakubu scored 21 goals in 57 games for Nigeria between 2000 and 2012.

4. Victor Osimhen

Victor Osimhen has now scored 10 goals in the current African Cup of Nations qualifier after Sunday’s hattrick against Sao Tome. On June 18, 2023, he scored a brace against Sierra Leone to take his Super Eagles tally to 17 goals, becoming the highest-scoring active player in the national team. His hat-trick today marked the 20th. 

5. Ikechukwu Uche

Ikechukwu Uche spent eight years in the Super Eagles setup, establishing himself as a clutch performer and reliable player for the Nigerian national team and retired as number four among the Super Eagles’ all-time highest goalscorers.

Uche is also on the Top 10 Super Eagles all-time top scorers list.

He scored 19 goals in 46 games between 2007 and 2015 for the Super Eagles after which he called it quits internationally.

6. Obafemi Martins

Obafemi Martins is one the very best strikers to have represented the Super Eagles of Nigeria.

Martins is on the Top 10 Super Eagles all-time top scorers list.

The former Inter Milan striker fondly called ‘Obagoal’ scored 18 goals in 48 appearances for the Super Eagles from 2004 to 2015.

7. Sunday Oyarekhua

Sunday Oyarekhua scored 17 goals in 28 games for the Nigeria national football team when they were still called the “Green Eagles” between 1971 and 1976.

Oyarekhua was prolific for the Super Eagles in the 1970s’ and he’s on the Top 10 Super Eagles all-time top scorers list.

8. Samson Siasia

Super Eagles legend Samson Siasia would go on to be more prominent for his national team involvement as a coach multiple times but he had a great playing career as well.

Siasia is more prominent as a Super Eagles manager but he had a successful playing career and he is on the Top 10 Super Eagles all-time top scorers list.