Rave reviews are trailing the Belgium-based duo of Taiwo Awoniyi and Victor Osimhen, following breathtaking goals in the Belgian Cup from both former Golden Eaglets strikers.
Awoniyi was on target for KAA Gent and Osimhen followed suit with his second straight strike in the colours of Sporting Chaleroi, after which pundits got into frenzy over the duo.
Information reaching footballlive.ng from Belgium indicates that Awoniyi and Osimhen have now been rated among the young players likely to go home with the next Ebony Award for African players in Belgium.
Additional props have also come for them in top ratings for a youth gong among players aged under-20 plying their trade in Belgium’s top flight league.
All this comes after Awoniyi, who is on loan from Liverpool of England, ended a six game barren run with a brace in his side’s 4-2 win over Excelsior Virton in the Belgian Cup.
Awoniyi wasted no time in giving his team an early lead but Virton went into the break level at 1-1, a lead which Gent regained three minutes after the half hour mark but soon lost it again in the 78th minute.
Six minutes before the end, another sizzler came from Awoniyi, whose last goal came on the 16th of August, against Jagiellonia Bialystok of Poland, in the qualifiers of the Europa League.
The game was finally put to bed when Gent scored their fourth of the encounter, with Awoniyi showing the signs he displayed last season for another Belgian club, Royal Excel Mouscron, where he scored ten league goals while on loan.
On his part, Osimhen, who is equally on loan from VfL Wolfsburg of Germany, followed up his first goal for Charleroi against Waasland-Beveren last weekend with another in the Belgium Cup.
The game was heading for a barren draw before the 19-year-old Chile 2015 FIFA U-17 World Cup top scorer struck the opening goal in the first minute of added time to give his team the lead.
Osimhen’s goal opened the gates for victory, as the game eventually ended in a 2-1 win for his side against lower division side, Eendracht Aalst.
He subsequently got words of praise from Charleroi’s coach, Felice Mazzu, who says he is happy that the lad is justifying the trust he had in pushing to sign him from Wolfsburg.
Mazzu said: “Victor can score goals. We know he can do that and getting in shape is what he needed. He still has to improve but his confidence is back which is good for his progression with us.”
