Throughout the years, there has always been a steady influx of Nigerian players making their way to the English Premier League. Some of the greatest players to ever pull on the Super Eagles national shirt have performed in England’s top division, and some of those have earned silverware.
This impact of Nigerian players on the Premier League has dwindled somewhat in recent years, especially when it comes to earning a place at the top clubs. But some high-profile Nigerian players are still strutting their stuff in the EPL and their names will pop up now and again in football match prediction previews.
Betting on Teams with Nigerian Players
A player’s nationality, of course, is not something to base a football bet on. However, every player who steps onto the pitch will influence the outcome of a match in one way or another. In the bigger picture, they will, in turn, influence what unfolds throughout a season.
The current standing of Nigerian players in the 2023/24 Premier League mostly focuses on teams fighting for survival. But that means that the bulk of team betting, where Nigerian players are in the squad, could still have some value.
It could be relying on someone like Nottingham Forest striker Taiwo Awoniyi, for example, to be good enough to keep his club in the top flight.
Who Is Playing in England?
Based on the squad selection that Nigeria took to AFCON earlier this year, the Premier League was well represented. Here’s who made the squad from EPL clubs:
● Calvin Bassey – Fulham
● Gabriel Osho – Luton Town
● Frank Onyeka – Brentford
● Taiwo Awoniyi – Nottingham Forest
● Ola Aina – Nottingham Forest
There were four other players involved from England’s second tier, the Championship. That included Leicester City duo Kelechi Iheanacho and Wilfred Ndidi. The others were West Brom’s Semi Ajayi and Southampton’s Joe Aribo.
With Leicester looking likely to earn promotion back to the EPL, that could easily bump up the number of Nigerian players in the top flight next season. Currently, though, a bet on Leicester, who are odds-on favourites to earn promotion, could make some sense depending on their value in the market at the time.
You can go a little deeper with that, as both the aforementioned Southampton and West Brom are in with a chance of reaching the promotion playoffs. So wagers on them either for a Top 6 Finish or To Win Promotion could be approached.
Betting and Nigerian Players
Players like Iheanacho and Awoniyi, who are strikers, raises the opportunity to look at player performance-based betting markets. That could be something like backing Awoniyi as the Last Goalscorer in a Premier League match.
There’s First Goalscorer, Anytime Goalscorer, To Score 2+ goals and those markets can even be merged into Bet Builders too. Whether they make sensible choices for a bet, will depend on the particular player’s form, the difficulty of the match and of course the general form of the team.
It’s worth noting that Nigeria’s superstar striker Victor Osimhen is a transfer target for many of England’s leading clubs, so he could also join the ranks of Super Eagles in the EPL next term. Should Osimhen arrive in England, then it would be with one of the top six elite clubs.
So he could be a huge influence on a team getting involved in a title race there, and potentially in the UEFA Champions League. Osimhen himself would probably draw a lot of interest to finish the season as the league’s Top Goalscorer too.
In Summary
That’s the thing with betting, it is all about perspective. When looking at specific team betting for a club to achieve something, whether that is To Be Relegated or To Win Promotion, there are many other factors to put together.
There have been some great Nigerian players in the Premier League, like Arsenal’s Kanu Nwankwo who was part of their ‘Invincibles’ side that won the 2003/04 title, and Chelsea’s Jon Obi Mikel who had many great duels against the Gunners.
It’s great to see that quality Nigerian players are still being produced and are wanted in what is regarded as the best domestic league in the world. The more that happens, the further the status of the Nigerian national team will be raised, which in turn would bring some fascinating betting opportunities come the next editions of the World Cup and Afcon.
