Snubbed by Gernot Rohr for the Super Eagles’ pair of international friendly matches against Algeria and Tunisia next week, gangling forward Paul Onuachu continues to prove his worth in the First Division A
Nigeria international Paul Onuachu is the Belgium Pro League’s Player of the Month for September, having received the highest performance score calculated by top statistics agency Opta.
The former Midtjylland striker was unplayable last month, scoring five goals in just three matches played for KRC Genk, to top the best player’s chart with an Opta score of 87.25.
Club Brugge’s Hans Vanaken (82.79), Royal Antwerp’s Simen Kristiansen (79.94), Royal Excel Mouscron’s Kouakou Koffi (79.20), and Beerschot’s Raphael Holzhauser (79.11) complete the top five.
Onuachu got his first of September in Genk’s 5-2 loss at Beerschot before bagging a brace to lead his side to a 3-1 defeat of Mechelen.
And just two days to the end of the month, the 26-year-old striker netted another double in Genk’s 2-all draw at home to Oostende.
The Super Eagles star has six goals in six games for the Belgian side.
Impressed by Onuachu’s effectiveness in front of goal, former Genk striker Wesley Sonck sang the praises of the Nigerian star.
“If you take the totality into account, I can’t think of a better striker in Belgium at the moment,” says Sonck, as quoted by Sporza.
“You can play him in the foot, in the air, he can extend and is extremely dangerous in the penalty area. Whether the ball comes low or high, he is always close by in the box.”
“He has something like Jan Koller, but with better feet. He can head incredibly well and moves quite well. His feet are not bad, and he is not slow with his big steps.”
Since Onuachu made his Belgium Jupiler League debut on September 1, 2019, only Kaveh Rezaei (17) and Jonathan David (16) have scored more goals than the Nigerian (15).
Yet he will not be part of the party when Nigeria face Algeria and Tunisia on October 9th and 13th.
Head coach Gernot Rohr invited Onuachu’s Genk teammate, Cyriel Dessers – who has just two league goals – instead.
