Five goals in 7 games of a cup competition will earn you plaudits, when it gets you the golden shoe award, surely you’ll be rolling in a elite group.
And that much it has done for Odion Ighalo who strolled his way into the AFCON 2019 team of the tournament.
No small feat, certainly by no means a trivia task to lead the Super Eagles attack line and Ighalo proved he was up to the task, literally delivering Nigeria a bronze medal in Egypt.
However it mostly went down south after he copped a hamstring injury – knee injury the Coach reported – and barely 48 hours later he dropped notice of his international retirement, effective immediately.
His followed the long awaited exit call of the Eagles captain, Mikel Obi, to bring an end to a very testy yet well shaped 13-year senior career.
But no other Nigerian will follow Ighalo, by CAF’s Technical Committee’s estimation into that exclusive top performers list in Egypt.
Tagged the AFCON 2019 Best XI; and set up in the very famous 4-3-3 formation with Algerian Coach Djamel Belmadi favored to guide them from the sidelines, here they are:
Rais M’bolhi – Kalidou Koulibaly, Yassine Meriah, Lamine Gassama, Youssouf Sabaly – Ismael Bennacer, Adlene Guediora, Idrissa Gueye Gana – Riyad Mahrez, Sadio Mane, Odion Ighalo.
The #TotalAFCON2019 Best XI is in and it’s 🔥#CelebrateAfrica pic.twitter.com/DaW6xuLckH
— CAF (@CAF_Online) July 20, 2019
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