No Nigerian footballer is in the top five clubs predicted to win Europe’s number-one club competition come the end of the campaign
All the Super Eagles stars and Nigerian-born players in the UEFA Champions League should forget about lifting the prestigious trophy this season, says renowned data company Gracenote.
After their extensive analysis derived from data collected over the past four years, Gracenote predicts that reigning European champions Real Madrid have the best chance (23%) of retaining the Champions League.
The Spanish champions are joined by Manchester City (21%), Liverpool (14%), Bayern Munich (11%), and Paris St Germain (7%) in the top five clubs with the likelihood of becoming the continental champions.
No Super Eagles star plays in any of these five European giants.
As per the report, clubs with Nigerian footballers have little or no chance of winning Europe’s premier competition.
Zaidu Sanusi’s Porto (1%), Calvin Bassey’s Ajax (1%), Victor Osimhen’s Napoli (1%), Akinwunmi Amoo’s Copenhagen (0%), Fortune Bassey’s Viktoria Plzen (0%), and Raphael Onyedika’s Club Brugge (0%) should as well pack their bags and head home.
Only two of these – Sanusi’s Porto and Osimhen’s Napoli – have been grouped as among the most likely teams to make it to the knockout phase.
No Nigerian footballer has been on the UEFA Champions League winning team since Mikel Obi helped Chelsea beat Bayern Munich to the title in 2012.
Finidi George and Nwankwo Kanu, with Ajax Amsterdam in 1995) are the only other Nigerian stars to have lifted the prestigious trophy.
This post was last modified on September 13, 2022 6:26 pm