It is another exciting weekend of football and Nigerian players both home and abroad will be at the very heart of the action.
Here is Afrosport’s top eight picks to keep an eye on.
Taiwo Awoniyi (Nottingham Forest)
Awoniyi’s presence in the Forest team has been undeniable since his return from a groin injury in late January.
He has scored two goals since then including last week’s 2-0 win at West Ham and will be expected to turn up in Saturday’s visit to Aston Villa.
Alex Iwobi (Fulham)
The 27-year-old came off the bench last week in the 2-1 defeat at home against Aston Villa for his first club appearance since December as he was away on international duty with the Super Eagles at the Africa Cup of Nations.
Things did not end well for Iwobi as he was subject to online cyberbulling following the final loss to Ivory Coast and subsequently deleted all the content on his Instagram account.
Iwobi will need to move past that incident quickly and what better way than to be on the club scene, further more on a road trip to Manchester United on Saturday.
Maduka Okoye (Udinese)
Okoye has kept in Udinese’s last eight league matches which is something of a turnaround having been on the fringes since his arrival from Watford last summer.
The 24-year-old has put in some top performances including keeping a clean sheet in a 1-0 win away at Juventus.
Okoye is therefore currently seeing a resurgence in his career and it would be interesting to see where it leads him to, continuing with Saturday’s trip to Genoa.
Chijioke Mbaoma (Enyimba)
Mbaoma has continued to grow in experience in the NPFL and is spearheading Enyimba’s attack.
The former Heartland man currently has eight goals this season, netting in their last game against Shooting Stars which ended in a 1-0 win.
With table-topping Remo not in action this weekend, Mbaoma has an opportunity to close in on top scorer Sikiru Alimi’s tally of 11 goals. Enyimba also have the chance to go top of the table as they travel to Bendel Insurance.
Terem Moffi (OGC Nice)
Moffi returned to action after AFCON duty with the Super Eagles by coming off the bench in last weekend’s 1-0 loss by Olympique Lyon.
He leads the charts for Nice with six goals this season, the same tally he had while on loan from Lorient last season.
Moffi will be relied on to get into the goalscoring act again as Nice continue their push to secure Champions League football next season with a home tie against Clermont-Foot on Sunday.
Victor Osimhen (Napoli)
Osimhen showed his class when he netted the equaliser in Napoli’s 1-1 draw with Barcelona in the Champions League in midweek.
Napoli are under a new manager in Francesco Calzona and Osimhen will be tasked with doing what he does best as the defending Serie A champions try to salvage their season that has gone horribly wrong and is a shadow of their historic triumph last season, which Osimhen was at the core of.
Ademola Lookman (Atalanta)
Lookman is yet to return to action since AFCON 2023 but is in line to be involved in Sunday’s trip to AC Milan.
Atalanta performed superbly in Lookman’s absence, winning all their matches. That however does not mean his presence is not needed, especially as they push hard for a top four spot.
Paul Onuachu (Trabzonspor)
Onuachu was back in Trabzonspor colours last weekend but came on for two minutes in a 2-0 win over Pendikspor.
He will be expected to be in the starting lineup when they take on Adana Demirspor on Sunday.
Onuachu leads the scoring charts for Trabzonspor with nine goals and will be vital in their hopes of securing European qualification for next season.
