Eyes On A New Star

By Kenneth Duru |

Nigerian international Kelechi Iheanacho is the rave of the moment in global soccer. The fast–rising Manchester City’s midfielder is currently rated the most prolific finisher across Europe flagship football leagues including the English premiership, the Spanish La Liga, the Italian Serie A, the German Bundesliga and the French Ligue I.

The Ohaji, Imo State born lad who emerged as the most valuable player of the U-17 World Cup in 2013 is placed on top of the log of the world class finishers. Ranked with a performance ratio of 81.27-11 goals, Iheanacho leads, the pack which includes the likes of Luiz Suarez of Barcelona FC; Cristiano Ronald of Real Madrid FC; Karian Benzoma of Real Madrid FC; Zlatan Ibrahimovic of PSG FC; Gonzalo Higuain of Napoli; Lionel Messi of Barcelona Pierre – Emerich Aubameyang of Borrusia Dortmund; Robert Lewandoski of Bayern Munich and Gareth Bale of Real Madrid.

The young man is clearly the best performing member of the Super Eagles squad for now. Iheanacho and his Manchester City team mates punctured the permutation of bookmakers who hardly dreamt of a last four finish for the giant killing Etihad side. With his first star performance against Stocke City last weekend (when he scored a brace in the 4 – 0 thriller), Coach Manuel Pellegrini is condemned to give the ace midfielder a look in the semi final clash against the highly – rated Real Madrid FC of Spain.

Kelechi Iheanacho is indeed not new when it comes to doing great things. He was voted as the Most Promising Talent in Africa at the GLO/CAF Awards for the 2013 football year. This came after his superlative outing with the gold winning – Manu Garba – tutored Golden Eaglets squad in the United Arab Emirate earlier in 2013. Aside from his MVP diadem, he placed second on the top scorers chart with six goals at the end of the tournament.

The grass to grace history of this Nigerian soccer prodigy seems to evoke a kind of contrastive effect on his current glamourous standing. Iheanacho once told a reporter that due to financial constraints, he could not afford the fee of N 50 to watch games at viewing centres in his village when he was much younger. It was obvious that they did not have the luxury of  a television set in their home at that time.

But like a meteoric star destined to twinkle very brightly, Iheanacho  scaled the hurdle of lack to the height of glory. Within a very short period his status has blossomed from an obscure player at the Owerri based Taye Academy to that of a very important personality who is today, rubbing shoulders with the world best soccer stars. Manuel Pellegrini, Iheanacho’s coach at Manchester city perhaps captures what make this Nigerian – footballer of a wonder kind thick. “Kelechi though still young is very intelligent. He works extra hard during and after training sessions to improve on his game. He is also very eager to learn new things about the games,” he said.