The Lille forward has been compared with the greatest striker to ever put on the green and white kits of Nigeria.
Edema Fuludu, a member of the Tunisia ’94 Super Eagles winning team, believes the physical attributes of Victor Osimhen, and his goalscoring abilities can see him compare favourably with legendary Super Eagles forward, Rashidi Yekini.
Osimhen burst to the scene as a teen wonder after scoring ten goals to inspire the Golden Eaglets to FIFA U-17 World Cup glory in 2015. The youngster proceeded to bang in 3 goals in just 4 appearances for the Nigeria U-20 team before coach Gernot Rohr invited him to join the senior national team, two years ago, aged just 18.
He had to bide his time, especially with Ighalo not retiring until after the 2019 Nations Cup. But since taking over from the former Watford striker, the 20-year-old has found the back of the net four times in his last four games for the three-time African champions.
And Fuludu is convinced that the former Charleroi striker, who has already smashed in nine league goals for Lille this term, can continue to be productive for the Super Eagles if the right conditions are set in place for him.
“He is also lucky to have players like Samuel Chuckwueze, Samuel Kalu and even Ahmed Musa working with him,” the 49-year-old Fuludu was quoted by the New TelegraphNG.
“He reminds all of us of the late Rashidi Yekini; he is fast, he’s strong and fit. I think he will carry the scoring burden of the team for a long time to come but he needs competition to function very well.
“We need to look for other strikers who are good to rival him for that position. If in today’s Eagles we have about three players competing for slots in each position it means there will be more seriousness and desire to play well all the time. That was what happened to us in 1994.”
Genk’s Paul Onuachu, Heracles Almelo’s Cyriel Dessers and Club Brugge’s David Okereke are among the other players eyeing the striking role of the Super Eagles.
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