Villarreal of Spain winger, Samuel Chukwueze on Wednesday received another lift to his fast-rising profile, as he was rated the best performer in an otherwise disappointing squad of Nigeria’s Olympic Eagles.
Sports247.ng reports that Chukwueze played all 90 minutes of Nigeria’s 2-0 loss away to Libya in the first leg of their Africa U-23 Cup of Nations qualifier in Tunisia and, despite losing a chance to net during the second half, the Chile 2015 FIFA U-17 World Cup revelation rated highest of all.
Chukwueze gained 7.5 marks on the cards of post-match comments by a cross-section of pundits, with one even going on to suggest that the fair-skinned lad deserved to be named best player overall on both sides.
However, in what could be a terse verdict of poor balance Amapakabo’s squad had on the evening in Bergendan, several of the Nigerian players, mostly in defence scored below five points out of ten in the chart cards.
Only two others scored above five points, being team captain, Azubuike Okechukwu and Dennis Bonaventure, who had to be yanked off to make way for the reserve goalkeeper after the first choice got sent off.
Russia-based midfielder-turned-attacker, Muyiwa Olabiran and reserve keeper, Orewale Oremade got five points each, as Chukwueze stormed way ahead of all others with a rating of 7.5 points on the evening.
Chukwueze’s citation read: “The brightest spark for creativity. Made some runs down the channels and put in a few crosses which were not utilized. Unarguably the team’s best player on a very bad day.”
