Genk striker, Paul Onuachu, is set to end Nigeria’s long wait for the Ebony Shoe.
The Super Eagles star is the big favourite to succeed Dieumerci Mbokani as the winner of the prize, the top award given yearly to the best player of African origin playing in Belgium.
Onuachu will become the first Nigerian since Celestine Babayaro in 1996 to claim the honours.
It will also end Nigeria’s 25-year wait for a trophy that once seems like the country’s birthright.
Daniel ‘Da Bull’ Amokachi, then starring in the colours of Club Brugge, was the first player to win the Ebony Shoe, which was instituted in 1992.
The power-playing forward reclaimed the best African player award two years later after RFC Liege striker Victor Ikpeba pipped Amokachi and defender Chidi Nwanu to the podium in 1993.
That year was the first – and it remains the only time – that players from the same country would emerge as the three finalists.
