AFCON: How Napoli, Liverpool, West Ham will miss Osimhen, Salah, Kudus
It’s few days until AFCON kick-off and teams getting ready to lock horns in the much anticipated continental competition.
While these teams gunning for glory have chosen their best stars from different football clubs to represent them in the aforementioned competition, some of their club-side would dearly miss them. Below are some of the stars that would be missed greatly by their clubs:
Mohammed Salah: Nicknamed the ‘Egyptian King,’ Salah has established himself as a prolific goalscorer for both club and country having scored 200 goals in 148 appearances in all competitions for Liverpool while scoring 55 goals in 94 appearances for the Pharoahs of Egypt. Liverpool’s leading goalscorer this season with 18 goals in 27 games would possibly miss about 6-8 games should Egypt make it past the group stage.
Liverpool’s boss, Jurgen Klopp in an interview never hid the fact that his starman would greatly be missed. When asked by an interviewer on what he said to Salah on going for international duty he said “if I wish you good luck it would be a lie.’ But I do obviously.”
Victor Osimhen: The ‘prince of Naples’ and African best player would be looking forward to securing the much coveted AFCON trophy with the Super Eagles of Nigeria for a fourth time having last won the trophy in 2013. The Napoli hitman who won the Italian highest goalscorer award while leading the Gli Azzurri to their first Scudetto in 33 years last season would be missed by the Italian side. Coupled with the fact that the Italian side have struggled to find their balance this season, sacking their former coach Rudi Garcia and currently sits 9th on the table after losing 3-0 to Torino under new manager Walter Mazzarri.
With 8 goals and 3 assists in 18 games this season, the reigning champions would be missing a force to reckon on at a very critical point.
Serhou Guirassy: VFB Stuttgart will be without goal-threatening frontman Guirassy who has been invited by the Syli National of Guinea. He boosts of the best goal ratio this season with 19 goals in 16 games, that is 1.45 goals per 90′ while having 2 assists.
A prolific goalscorer he has been, Stuttgart would most definitely notice the void of his absence.
Victor Boniface: The Nigerian danger-man and part time X troll would also be missed by his club-side, Bayer Leverkusen. Known for his trickery and finesse, flair, strength and shooting power; Boniface is one of the hottest prospects in the world of strikers currently. With 16 goals and 8 assists in 23 games all competitions, he has won the Bundesliga rookie of the month award for the fourth consecutive time in a row.
His impressive stats speaks for itself as he would obviously be missed by the German side in their quest to win the league.
Mohammed Kudus: Kudus have become a household name in East London. The Ghanaian joined West Ham United from Ajax and wasted no time establishing himself as a fan favorite. With 4 goals for Ajax before joining the Hammers, he has gone on to score 9 goals and an assist for the latter.
In a vox-pop with fans, a little lad voiced “I wouldn’t lie mate, I wish Ghana is eliminated in the group stages of the competition so he would return back soon.” The black stars man would absolutely be missed by the hammers.
