Alex Iwobi who was compared to his uncle Austin Okocha by his Arsenal teammate Mesut Ozil, proved the German right when he went past five players with a some neat piece of skills.

During the week Ozil who has been one of the players motivating the 20 year old, during the course of the week said ” He reminds me of his uncle Jay-Jay Okocha, he was a player I loved watching”.

Iwobi appreciated the praise and reacted by saying, ” When I saw (Ozil compared me to Okocha and Edgar Davids), I was like, wow is he serious?. Because he never really says that much to me”.

After his off pitch reaction, he proved on the pitch that he can be every thing his legendary uncle was in Arsenal’s hard fought 3-2 win over Swansea City.

In the 55th minute, he collected a pass from the edge of Swansea’s box from Ozil and used some clean pair of hells to leave five Swansea defenders in their wake, but his cross failed to reach Theo Walcott, which Ozil later did with a headed pass but Walcott failed to beat Luskaz Fabianski in goal for Swansea City.

Arsenal 20 year old forward Alex Iwobi missed out on a nomination for the CAF Player of the year award, even as five other Nigerians made the list released earlier today.

Chelsea of England midfielder Mikel Obi and Leicester City big money buy Ahmed Musa, lead rave of the moment Kelechi Iheanacho of Manchester City as the three Nigerians in the list.

They will battle current holder Pierre Emerick Aubemeyang and 26 other African players in a list which also has Musa’s teammate Riyead Mahrez who was voted the best player in England last season.

The Nigerian duo of Mfon Udoh who plays for Enyimba and Wydad Casablanca’s Chisom Chikatara were also nominated, but in the category of Best African Player based in Africa.

CAF will trim the list before the end of the year for the awards which will be handed out in the first quarter of next year.

Coach of the Super Eagles of Nigeria Gernot Rohr has dropped a big hint on the potential central defence pairing when Nigeria take on Algeria, in their second World Cup 2018 qualifiers tie.

Group B leaders Nigeria will play Algeria in Uyo in the second round of qualifiers, and Rohr who has used William Troost Ekong and Leon Balogun and Kenneth Omeruo alongside Ekong, has already started making plans for the game.

” For now, it’s all about who proves himself in training before the game. Ekong, Balogun and Omeruo know as well that their performance for their clubs counts as well” He told Owngoalnigeria.com.

” We have to pick defenders base on what Algeria have in their attack. We still studying their games. For now am confident because we have the players.

” The quality we have means whoever is picked to play will give a good representation of himself in a game which will tell us how far, we’ve come in terms of our works on the defence of the team”.

Kelechi Iheanacho has once again won the CNN goal of the week, thanks to his goal for Nigeria against Zambia in the 2018 World Cup qualifiers which Nigeria won 2-1 in Ndola.

This is the second time Iheanacho is picking up the award, after his strike for Nigeria against Tanzania in September earned him the award for the first time.

The 20 year old Manchester City forward got 75% of the votes from an online CNN poll, beating his closest challenger, the legendary Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal and Real Madrid who finished second with 20% of the votes.

His close pal Alex Iwobi who plays for Arsenal and also found the back of the net in same game Iheanacho scored the goal that gave him the award, didn’t get enough votes to earn a mention.

However, another Nigerian Effiong Alfred who plays for Malta got a mention with 4% of the votes to finish in third position, bringing to two the number of Nigerians in the top three in the poll.

Bologna forward Sadiq Umar says Nigeria should establish contact with Cesena 18 year old forward Franklyn Akammadu, who is reportedly set to be called up to the Italian youth national team.

In the past Nigeria have lost the duo of Angelo Ogbonna and Chuka Okaka to Italy. 20 year old Umar is advocating that the football house in Nigeria establish contact with Akammadu to avoid losing him to Italy.

Umar who was one of the stars of Nigeria’s campaign at the Rio 2016 Olympics reckons, he has seen enough to convince him that Akammadu will come good in the nearest future.

” He is quick, skillful, strong and very good with both feet. He is highly rated here in Italy, presently he is the top scorer in the Primavera (Youth League)”. He told Owngoalnigeria.com.

” Too early to say he is ready for the main team but it will be good, if contact is made for future purposes. We can’t afford to lose him” He concluded.

Head coach of the Nigeria senior national team Gernot Rohr won’t be handing a recall to Gbolahan Salami despite the fine form of the 25 year old in the Finnish top flight league,

Salami took his season goal tally to 12 with a goal in the 25th minute as KuPS let slip a one goal lead to lose 1-2 away to RoPS.

The power playing forward moved to Finland before the start of the Finnish League after finishing as top scorer in the Nigeria Professional Football League two seasons ago.

He was already a member of the senior national team before his move abroad, but new manager Rohr confirmed that, in the run up to the World Cup 2018 qualifiers game against Algeria, Watford star Odion Ighalo is the only new name he will add to the striking position from the team that defeated Zambia 2-1 in Ndola.

” We excused Ighalo to attend the burial of his father. He will be in the team for the game against Algeria, for now he is the one name sure to be added to the attackers from the Zambia game” He told Owngoalnigeria.com

The near perfect combination of Kelechi Iheanacho and Alex Iwobi in the colours of the Super Eagles is winning them lot of admirers, including their national teammates.

Iwobi and Iheanacho got both goals for Nigeria in their 2-1 away win over Zambia in the 2018 World Cup qualifiers, a game which they combined to devastating effect bar the goals they scored.

According to the top scorer in the Nigeria Professional Football League Godwin Obaje, who was in camp with the duo. Their relationship is even more off the pitch but their combination on the pitch is magical.

” They are always together. Like twins off the pitch, and watching them play on the pitch is like art in motion. Their movement off the ball is crazy. They know where to locate each other” He told Owngoalnigeria.com.

” I learnt a lot from them about how to thread passes and movement off the ball. Am lucky to have trained with stars of their kind”.

Former South Africa national team coach Pitso Mosimane has warned Nigeria’s group rivals to be wary of the threat of the Super Eagles in the World Cup 2018 qualifiers.

Nigeria romped to the top of group B after a 2-1 win away to Zambia in Ndola, and stayed top after Algeria were held to a 1-1 draw by Cameroon at home.

Pitso, who watched the Nigerian team against Zambia warned the rest of the teams in the group to pay attention to the Nigerians, who are now playing a football befitting of their standard.

” This is the real Super Eagles, they were very impressive against Zambia. They are to me one of the teams to beat in the World Cup qualifiers” He said.

” The quality in the team is mindblowing. They have players like Mikel Obi, Kelechi Iheanacho, Alex Iwobi and even as good as he is Ahmed Musa plays from the bench. This is indeed the real Super Eages”.