Nigeria stars Osimhen and Lookman on top in Italy

SERIE A Nigeria stars Osimhen and Lookman on top in Italy

Joba Ogunwale 21:41 - 15.01.2023

The two Super Eagles stars are in the best form of their lives in Italy’s top flight this season.

Nigerian stars Victor Osimhen and Ademola Lookman are the leading men in Serie A this season after they both scored a brace for their respective clubs. 

Osimhen kicked off proceedings on Friday in Napoli’s 5-1 thrashing of Juventus at the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium. 

Osimhen's just cannot stop scoring

Osimhen opened the scoring for the Neapolitans in the 14th minute before scoring his second and Napoli’s fourth in the 65th minute. 

Victor Osimhen scored twice and assisted another for Napoli against Juventus

Following Osimhen’s heroics, Lookman replicated the same feat for Atalanta in their 8-2 bashing of Salernitana. 

Lookman, who was on a two-goal mini drought in the league, doubled La Dea’s lead in the 20th minute after Jeremie Boga had put the home side ahead. Lookman fired in from the penalty spot before firing in from the edge of the box in the 54th minute for his second and Atalanta’s sixth. 

Ademola Lookman fired home his second and Atalanta's sixth against Salernitana

With the brace, Lookman has surpassed his best-ever individual campaign in Europe’s top five leagues. 

Osimhen and Lookman having their best-ever season

The Nigerian international scored eight league goals for Leicester City last season, but Sunday’s brace takes his tally to in Serie A to nine in 17 matches. 

var widgetLoaderConfig = widgetLoaderConfig || { CDN_URL: 'https://widgets.sportal365.com', APP_LINK: 'desktop', API_URL: 'https://africa.football.api.sportal365.com/', API_KEY: '2f852b4de2f3a5cf3188e74b33087bb4:2c18422f8e826a7d11aeed52edb2449e', LANG: 'en', REQUEST_INTERVAL: 30, ENABLE_BET_SLIP: false, AUTHOR: false, THEME: "light", TOURNAMENT_ORDER: "pulse_nigeria", LINK_OPTIONS_V2: { 'player' : { 'url': '/football/player/{playerId}' }, 'team' : { 'url': '/football/{teamId}' }, 'tournament': { 'url': '/football/competition/{tournamentId}' }, 'match': { 'url' : '/football/match/{matchId}', 'sort': { 'criteria': 'alphabetically', 'direction': 'asc' } }, 'configuration': { 'newWindow': false }, 'standings_tournament': { 'url': '/football/competition/{tournamentId}/standings' } } }; if (!document.querySelector('script[src="https://widgets.sportal365.com/loader.bundle.min.js"]')) { window.setTimeout(function () { let scriptCss = document.createElement('link'); scriptCss.href = 'https://www.pulsesports.co.ke/css/sport-widgets.css?v=1668785443'; scriptCss.rel = 'stylesheet'; scriptCss.type = 'text/css'; document.body.appendChild(scriptCss); let scriptTag = document.createElement('script'); scriptTag.src = 'https://widgets.sportal365.com/loader.bundle.min.js'; scriptTag.defer = true; scriptTag.onload = function () { window.setTimeout(function () { new SMPWidgetsLoader(widgetLoaderConfig); }, 200); }; document.head.appendChild(scriptTag); }, 0); } else { new SMPWidgetsLoader(widgetLoaderConfig); }

The brace also takes him to joint-second in the league’s top scorer charts, only behind Osimhen. Osimhen currently leads the race for golden boot with 12 goals in 14 games. 

He is only just two goals way from equalling his last season tally of 14.

var widgetLoaderConfig = widgetLoaderConfig || { CDN_URL: 'https://widgets.sportal365.com', APP_LINK: 'desktop', API_URL: 'https://africa.football.api.sportal365.com/', API_KEY: '2f852b4de2f3a5cf3188e74b33087bb4:2c18422f8e826a7d11aeed52edb2449e', LANG: 'en', REQUEST_INTERVAL: 30, ENABLE_BET_SLIP: false, AUTHOR: false, THEME: "light", TOURNAMENT_ORDER: "pulse_nigeria", LINK_OPTIONS_V2: { 'player' : { 'url': '/football/player/{playerId}' }, 'team' : { 'url': '/football/{teamId}' }, 'tournament': { 'url': '/football/competition/{tournamentId}' }, 'match': { 'url' : '/football/match/{matchId}', 'sort': { 'criteria': 'alphabetically', 'direction': 'asc' } }, 'configuration': { 'newWindow': false }, 'standings_tournament': { 'url': '/football/competition/{tournamentId}/standings' } } }; if (!document.querySelector('script[src="https://widgets.sportal365.com/loader.bundle.min.js"]')) { window.setTimeout(function () { let scriptCss = document.createElement('link'); scriptCss.href = 'https://www.pulsesports.co.ke/css/sport-widgets.css?v=1668785443'; scriptCss.rel = 'stylesheet'; scriptCss.type = 'text/css'; document.body.appendChild(scriptCss); let scriptTag = document.createElement('script'); scriptTag.src = 'https://widgets.sportal365.com/loader.bundle.min.js'; scriptTag.defer = true; scriptTag.onload = function () { window.setTimeout(function () { new SMPWidgetsLoader(widgetLoaderConfig); }, 200); }; document.head.appendChild(scriptTag); }, 0); } else { new SMPWidgetsLoader(widgetLoaderConfig); }

Both Osimhen and Lookman have also scored more goals than any other player in the league since October 2002. Osimhen has ten goals in this time frame while Lookman has seven. 

It has indeed a brilliant season so far for the two Nigerian stars, especially Lookman, who is having an excellent debut campaign after joining Atalanta from RB Leipzig last summer. 

Related content