The Nigeria football news scene is abuzz with reports of goals scored by forwards Samuel Chukwueze and Terem Moffi being nominated for the goal of the tournament in the UEFA European Conference League, Europe’s third-tier club competition.
⚽️ UEFA's Technical Observer panel has selected their top 10 goals of the season…
Who will your vote go to? 🗳️@Heineken || #UECLGOTT || #UECL
— UEFA Europa Conference League (@europacnfleague) June 10, 2023
Both forwards were brilliant for their teams this season; Chukwueze scored 13 goals and provided 11 assists and Moffi bagged 21 goals and three assists in all competitions. A number of those goals were impressive and one from each of their collections has made it into two elite European football competition lists that could be awarded a grand prize in the coming weeks.
Fan Vote to Decide Winner of the Award
Terem Moffi scored three goals in four appearances for OGC Nice in the competition before they were knocked out in the quarter-finals by FC Basel. It was his overhead kick in the second leg of the tie against Basel that UEFA technical observers selected as one of the nominees for the tournament’s goal of the season.
For Samuel Chukwueze, it was his goal for Villarreal in their 4 – 3 win over Polish side Lech Poznan on matchday one that was selected by the committee.
They are up against final-day hero Jarrod Bowen of West Ham United and his teammate Declan Rice, Ciro Immobile of Lazio, Andy Diouf of FC Basel, Erdogan Yesilyurt, who plays with Nigeria national football team captain Ahmed Musa at Sivasspor in Turkey, as well as Christian Kouame and Riccardo Saponara, both of Italian Serie A side and 2023 Conference League finalists Fiorentina.
African top 3 scorers in the 2022/23 French Ligue 1.
1️⃣8️⃣ goals for #Nigeria’s @7erem_ Moffi of Lorient/NICE 💥pic.twitter.com/MDdgdNwR0h
— Oluwashina Okeleji (@oluwashina) June 5, 2023
The winner of the award will be decided by fan votes which have begun and will wrap up in the coming days. Regardless of the outcome of the fan votes, however, Moffi can take solace in the fact that the experts ranked his brilliant overhead kick as the best goal of the tournament.
In an official list released on the UEFA European Conference League website, Moffi’s goal was said to be the top goal in the list of ten which the observers will present to fans to vote for their favourite. Chukwueze’s goal ranked fourth on the technical observers list but fans could help him bag the award with their votes.
Moffi Absence from Super Eagles AFCON qualifiers 2023 Squad a Surprise
Moffi joined OGC Nice on loan in January and put up impressive performances that led to the club completing his signing after the 2022/23 Ligue 1 season was up. Chukwueze, on the other hand, enjoyed his best run of form since joining Villarreal in 2018, ending up as the second-ever African footballer of the year in LaLiga.
Samuel Chukwueze has been named La Liga's African Player of the Season 🌟 pic.twitter.com/hvL575GXAe
— Soar Super Eagles (@SSE_NGA) June 6, 2023
Despite the great performances that Moffi put in this season, he missed out on being included in José Peseiro’s Super Eagles squad list for the upcoming AFCON 2023 qualifiers fixtures game against Sierra Leone. His and Gift Orban’s omission has raised questions among Nigerian fans.
In the meantime, both Moffi and Chukwueze will be keeping their fingers crossed for the addition of another personal accolade in their European sojourn as football players.
This article was most recently revised and updated 5 months ago
