Eagles scorecard: How Onuachu’s humility, determination paved way for him

Call him a moving train or a stone which the builders rejected that later became the cornerstone, you may be right, rave of the moment, Ebere Paul Onuachu, has finally come to stay with Nigeria’s Super Eagles after breaking the barrier with his extra-time goal against the Benin Republic on Saturday to seal the country’s qualification for AFCON.

He was ignored, abandoned, sidelined, and over-looked by the Super Eagles technical crew in spite of his remarkable scoring achievement with his club, Genk in Belgium.

Onuachu was never on the good books of Gernot Rohr not until after helping his team to record an out-right away victory at the least expected hour. But today, everybody is singing the praises of a man who never allowed condemnation and rejection took away his focus, ambition, and determination.

If Onuachu had listened to the advice of senior colleagues, he would have missed that opportunity to redeem his national team career. He never allowed the ‘distraction to affect his love and desire for his fatherland.

The only former attacker, Julius Aghahowa urged him to forge ahead and wave aside whatever that may discourage him to score against Benin if given the chance.

Genk forward headed home a late winner for the Eagles to end a raging seven-day debate about his invitation.

Rohr started the rumblings when he ignored the prolific goalscorer on the 24-man list he prepared for Nigeria’s last two Group L matches.

It was a surprise for many who had watched the towering forward dominate the headlines in Belgium almost weekly, scoring goals for fun and catching the attention of several clubs across Europe.

read also:Eagles’ must go for gold in 2022 AFCON in Cameroon – Onuachu

Still, Rohr was far from impressed, and the German even preferred to invite others when replacing players whose club stopped from travelling to Nigeria for the qualifiers.

At long last, Rohr swallowed his pride and called up the 26-year-old to take the place of Moses Simon, who had been held back by French club Nantes.

In supporting Rohr’s decision to snub Onuachu, some fans pointed at the former Midtjylland ace’s poor returns when wearing the green-and-white.

However, it is to his credit that Onuachu did not let the harsh criticisms weigh him down. Neither did he let his head drop when his name failed to make it to the first eleven in Porto Novo despite Alex Iwobi’s late withdrawal after failing a coronavirus test.

Rohr’s preferred striking duo of Napoli’s Victor Osimhen and Leicester City’s Kelechi Iheanacho missed several chances as Nigeria failed to make their dominance count against the Squirrels.

Rohr then turned to the one man that would not have been on the bench had circumstances permitted, sending on the Genk man for Iheanacho with 20 minutes left to play.

And just when the game appeared destined to end as a scoreless draw, Onuachu showed his penalty box killer instincts, towering above his marker to head home three minutes into stoppage time after an initial shot from Osimhen was blocked.

Onuachu moved to Danish club FC Midtjylland in 2012, on a scholarship, from their affiliate team in Nigeria, Ebedei. He was a prolific scorer for their youth team, and made his first-team debut in the Cup later that year, before making his league debut in December 2012. In June 2013 he signed a new three-year contract with the club, before extending it for a further three-years in August 2015. In early 2015 he was loaned to Vejle BK, before returning to FC Midtjylland ahead of the 2015–16 season.

In August 2019 he signed for Belgian club Genk.

Onuachu was called up to the Nigerian under-23 national team in February 2015. In March 2019 he received his first call-up to the Nigerian senior team.

On 26 March 2019, Onuachu scored his first goal for Nigeria in a friendly match against Egypt. The goal was scored within the first ten seconds of the game, and the fastest ever scored for Nigeria. Following the goal, Onuachu was heralded as the “toast of Nigerian football”, with “his coach, team-mates, journalists and fans talking about him”. He was selected to the Nigeria squad for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations. He played in Nigeria’s 1–0 win over Burundi.