Gift Orban

Nigeria's latest striking sensation

- Oluwashina Okeleji

Nigeria’s wealth of options in attack is well documented. As well as Victor Osimhen of Napoli, who continues to evolve into one of the world’s premier strikers (more on him on page 44), they have Kelechi Iheanacho and Emmanuel Dennis playing in the Premier League, Ademola Lookman scoring goals for Atalanta, and Samuel Chukwueze lighting up the wing for Villarreal.

Now though, there is another young attacking starlet ready to join them: Gift Orban. Since joining Gent from Norwegian side Stabaek in January, the 20-year-old has been a total revelation, scoring 14 goals in his first 14 games in all competitions, particularly catching the eye in the Europa Conference League. In the last-16 win over Istanbul Basaksehir he scored four times across the two legs, including hitting the fastest hat-trick ever recorded in a UEFA club competition, netting the treble in just 205 seconds to fire Gent to their first European quarter-final in 31 years.

In little time he has already earned rave reviews, not only for his talent but for his hunger and mentality as well.

“He wants to win every training session,” Torgeir Bjarmann, Stabaek’s sporting director, told Belgian publication Nieuwsblad. “He wants to score every workout. He never relaxes.”