Nigeria's forward Ahmed Musa celebrates after scoring their second goal during the Russia 2018 World Cup Group D football match between Nigeria and Iceland at the Volgograd Arena in Volgograd on June 22, 2018. / AFP PHOTO / Mark RALSTON
There are three players that have left indelible marks on the minds of football-crazy Nigerians since the country’s first appearance at the World Cup in the US in 1994.
Gangling Rashidi Yekini for Super Eagles’ debut World Cup goal and his frenzied celebration; Yakubu Aiyegbeni’s point-blank miss against South Korea on June 22, 2010, and Ahmed Musa’s fantastic brace against an icy Icelandic defence exactly eight years after Aiyegbeni’s blatant miss.
That brace has landed the pacy Leicester City winger in recorded books.
Leicester City’s First
Jamie Vardy, a Leicester legend is at the World Cup with England. But it is Musa who became the first Foxes’ player to score at the World Cup since the club was founded in 1884.
And of course, he is the club’s first player to score a brace at two different editions of World Cup.
#lcfc's first-ever #WorldCup goalscorer
pic.twitter.com/xUiZ4cjUre
— Leicester City (@LCFC) June 22, 2018
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Highest the Flyest
Rashidi Yekini might have opened Nigeria’s first World Cup goal account, but Ahmed Musa holds the record of being the highest goalscorer for the country at the World Cup. His four goals came in two matches – a brace against Argentina in Brazil 2014 and the double against Iceland on Friday.
Double double
By the virtue of those braces, Musa also became the first Nigerian player to have scored in, at least, two editions of World Cup. And the first to score multiple goals in more than one game.
Africa’s first
Musa’s feat against Iceland means that he is the first African player to ever score multiple goals in more than one game in consecutive World Cups. Neither Ghana’s Asamoah Gyan (6 goals) nor Cameroon’s legend Roger Milla (5 goals) can boast of that record.
However, he is the second African player to register two goals in two World Cup matches since Cameroon’s Roger Milla in 1990.
Finally…
Musa has scored two braces on two occasions he played against Lionel Messi – double strikes against Argentina in Brazil 2014 and the brace for Leicester against Barcelona on August 4, 2016.
Nigerians will be hoping that he does an encore against La Albiceleste come Tuesday.
Ahmed Musa Post Match.. pic.twitter.com/O8hm84PeiP
(@BigBrovah) June 22, 2018
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Source: G Sport
