BEVERLY HILLS, April 11, (THEWILL) – Nigeria striker Simeon Tochukwu Nwankwo, fondly addressed as Simy, who stars as a forward for Serie A club Crotone, found the net for the 16th time on Saturday when his relegation-battling, bottom-placed club travelled to the Stadio Alberto Picco for a Matchday 30 tie against Spezia.
However, Simy’s scoring for the sixth straight match which edged his side in front and looked to be enough to get all the points, did not help the fortunes of Crotone. They conceded twice, in the 89th minute to lose their lead and, in the second minute of extra time, to capitulate completely as they helped Spezia jump to 14th while they remained locked at the bottom.
That has been in spite of the good work Simy had been putting into his general contribution to the team’s fixtures. His goal tally for the season of 16 from 30 appearances in the Italian top-flight has not made the type of difference it should because the team’s defense has continued to let the team down.
For instance, last weekend against Victor Osimhen’s Napoli, Simy netted twice to help Crotone to keep up with the I Partenopei but his side let in four goals to render all his hard work ineffective. Before that, at home to Bologna, Simy scored a first half penalty to put Crotone in front but two late second half goals caused another loss.
While the 28-year-old continues putting in his best, it has come to the notice of the ever-watchful statisticians at OPTA, a British sports analytics company that provides data for 30 sports in 70 countries, that only former Nigeria international and Super Eagles striker, Yakubu Ayegbeni, who netted 17 times for Blackburn Rovers in the 2011/2012 season has scored more goals than Simy’s Serie A total among Nigerian players in a single top-5 European League campaign of the 2000s.
The calculation implies that if Simy proceeds to score two more goals in any of Crotone’s last eight matches of the season, the 28-year-old will break the record set by Yakubu nine years ago for a Nigerian footballer. That should not pose too high a bar for Simy, on his current form.
This season, only Juventus’ Cristiano Ronaldo (25), Inter Milan’s Romelu Lukaku (21) and Atalanta’s Luis Muriel (18) have more goals than Simy in the Serie A.
About the Author
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
