Reigning King of the Pitch and Queen of the Pitch, Victor Osimhen and Asisat Oshoala respectively, are in with excellent chances of retaining their awards at the 9th Nigeria Pitch Awards on Friday.
The ceremony for this year’s edition will hold at the Great Margaret Hall of the John Woods Hotel, Abuja. Osimhen, with 23 goals in 28 matches for Italian Serie A side Napoli this season, is currently one of the world’s leading goalpoachers.
His four goals have helped the Italian club reach the quarterfinals of Europe’s top club competition, UEFA Champions League, for the very first time.
At the international level, his four goals against Sao Tome and Principe in a 2023 AFCON qualifier in Agadir, Morocco, nine months ago helped Nigeria to a record international win of 10-0.
The gangling young forward has recently won the Best Foreign Athlete and Player of the Month awards in Italy. He battles Ademola Lookman, Alex Iwobi and Paul Onuachu for the prestigious accolade.
Oshoala, who shines for Barcelona in Spain’s top division, scooped the Pichichi Award as the league’s joint-highest goalscorer with 20 goals, which helped her club win the league title and the Spanish Super Cup. She is in a contest with Super Falcons’ teammates Rasheedat Ajibade and Gift Monday.
There are 18 categories in all where winners will emerge on Friday night: King of the Pitch; Queen of the Pitch; Striker of the Year; Goalkeeper of the Year; Defender of the Year; Midfielder of the Year; Team of the Year;
The Nigeria U17 side Flamingos,who won bronze medallists at the FIFA U17 Women’s World Cup in India, battle Rivers United and Remo Stars for Team of the Year, and Rivers United’s Stanley Eguma tops the list for Coach of the Year, which also has Gbenga Ogunbote and Bankole Olowookere.
