Middlesbrough striker Chuba Akpom has been named Sky Bet Championship Player of the Season at the EFL Awards on Sunday evening.
Akpom is rewarded for a terrific season that has seen him score 29 goals in 38 games – 28 coming from 33 league starts.
Barring a late flurry of goals elsewhere he will become the first Boro player to scoop the Golden Boot since John Hickton bagged 25 during the 1970/71 Second Division season.
Akpom has already claimed the gong as the first Boro man to hit 20 league goals since Bernie Slaven in 1989/90.
Also Read: Serie A: Success Scores, Dessers Subbed Off As Udinese Overcome Cremonese
The former Arsenal man set a new Sky Bet Championship high for successive home strikes when he scored his ninth against Hull City at the Riverside in midweek.
“It means a lot to get acknowledged for the work during the season and I’m really grateful for it,” said a delighted Chuba, who was also named in the Sky Bet Championship Team of the Year.
“There’s a lot of quality players in this league so for me to even be on the shortlist was an amazing accomplishment.
Chuba was quick to pay tribute to his Boro team-mates for what has been an amazing season so far.
“I always try to tell people it’s not just me,” he said. “It’s about the team. I couldn’t do it. I feel like the manager has got the perfect players for the way we want to play.
“The changing room is amazing, there’s a good relationship s between everyone and I’m grateful to everyone for their support and I wouldn’t have been nominated without them.”
Meanwhile, Burnley handler and former Manchester City skipper Vincent Kompany won the Manger of the Season award.
The former Belgian international guided Burnley back to the Premier League.
15 Comments
Musa is keeping him out of the SE
NFF, is just using MUSA to count record while we have great players out there that can make Nigeria proud.
Can you imagine someone playing for two minutes of extra time with no contribution and they are counting it as additional caps for nations team. Some people in NFF just want to build a record that nobody would be able to break for him at the detriment of national team.
I was expecting NFF to invite Akpom in our last matches against Guinea and leave Osimhen to continue his good work at Napoli, Osimhen wouldn’t have sustained the injury and Napoli would have won the matches against Millan and still be in Championship.
I know that God will librate Nigeria football from these funny administrators very soon.
Wow, fantastic achievement.
Congrats young man!
CONGRATULATIONS!!!!
** THE BEST NIGERIA SUPPORTING( not MAIN) STRIKER AT THE MOMENT ***
MOST OTHER NIGERIA GOALSCORING ARE MAIN STRIKER.
CHUBA AKPOM IS THE ONLY NIGERIA TOP SCORER IN EUROPE AS A SUPPORTING STRIKER.
PASEIRO SHOULD GIVE HIM A TRIAL/CHANCE. HE WILL BE A GOOD COMBINATION (as supporting striker) WITH EITHER OSIMHEN, MOFFI,DESSERS, INSTEAD OF WASTING INVITATION ON IHEANACHO, AWONIYI, ONUACHU, SADIQ (all lack regular playing time, lack consistent goal scoring)
It is criminal for any coach to say he doesn’t know a player of this caliber. Who did this to Nigeria?
I DON’T KNOW WHY COACH PASEIRO IS STILL CONTINUOUS SNUBBING AKPOM FOR SUPER EAGLE.
CHUBA AKPOM IS THE BEST NIGERIA ASSISTANT/SUPPORTING (not MAIN) STRIKER IN EUROPE FOR NOW. MOST OTHER NIGERIA STRIKERS ARE MAIN STRIKER.
** PASEIRO IS ONLY USING EGO, NAMES, SENIORITY TO INVITE PLAYERS INTO SUPER EAGLE. IF NOT, WHAT IS THE BUSINESS/FORM OF MUSA, ONUACHU, OMERUO, IHEANACHO, ARIBO, ONYEKA IN LAST QUALIFICATION. ALL THESE PLAYERS ARE ALL BENCH-WARMWER IN THEIR VARIOUS RESPECTIVE CLUBS.
*** NIGERIA TOP PERFORMANCE IN EUROPE APART FROM BIG NAMES LIKE OSIMHEN, AKPOGUMA ARE:
1. SEBASTIAN OSIGWE- ADELEYE
2, EBUEHI- OSAYI
4. ONYEDIKA
7. LOOKMAN
8. BONIFACE, ORBAN
9. DESSERS
IF COACH PASEIRO WANT TO SUCCEED WITH SUPER EAGLE, HE SHOULD FORGET EGOS, NAMES, SENIORITY IN INVITING PLAYERS. HE SHOULD TAKE HARDSHIP/FRANK DECISION IN INVITING A WELL DESERVED PLAYERS UNLESS YOU WILL FAIL WOEFULLY.
@JULIET What Of Chukwueze?
What did chukwueze do this season? Mr Once in a blue moon striker. please let him go rest abeg. Shows up when it’s comfortable for him to.
Can you all leave the coach for once and let him focus on his job, all the above listed players how many performed well in the national team. Just be candid with yourselves, he called majority to a friendly against Portugal, we were beaten 4-0. Same with the resent games. We nothing to write about,all we do is hype players and when the main reason for inviting shows up, they end up playing rubbish.
This recognition has put a big question mark on NFF’s mode of selecting national team players. I’m not sure there’s an established system for inviting players, no criteria or pattern. If a player like Onuachu, who is yet to score a single goal for his club and Musa, who is practically redundant in Turrkey are stil getting a look in, why won’t they consider Akpom the goal king and best player in the English Championship. That tier of English football is by higher than many European premier league where those being considered ahead of Akpom play. And this coach is saying he doesn’t know him. Akpom probably has to win a Ballon Dior to be invited to SEs.
Akpom is certainly a very good striker but he should move to a bigger league and test himself among the elites of European football……the English championship is way below the top 5 leagues in Europe……At the moment SE has too many top level strikers playing in top5 leagues and it will be hard for Akpom to best any of them…..
Osimhen-Napoli
Sodiq-Real Sociadad
Moffi- Nice
Success- Udinese
Awoniyi- Northingham forest
Iheanacho- Leceister
Onuachu- Southampton……
To be honest Akpom has to bring his game to a higher level to break into that strikers department of Nigeria……By Next season the Department might even get richer with more young strikers of Nigerian origin being linked with top clubs already….
Orban- Gent
Boniface- union saint Gullois
Arokodare- Genk…….
Boniface is almost certainly moving to AC Milan next season and that alone will create more headache for the national team selectors in the strikers department…….How I wish We where half as blessed in the Midfield defense and goal keeping department as we are blessed in the strikers department we would have been up there with the likes of Brazil Argentina Germany Spain and co.
Your observations are legit. However, Akpom has shown, on the strength of his performances this season, that he has outgrown the EFL Championship. You can’t tell if a move to a bigger league is on the line until the transfer market reopen in the summer. I believe he will attract significant interest from some bigger clubs. Having said that, Akpom should still be given a chance with the super eagles in spite of the avalanche of strikers in the team because of his ability to play in the attacking midfield position where Iwobi is our only choice for now. If he is tried there and he does well, it will increase the depth of the team. Moreover, we need midfielders who are adept at goalscoring also. This is actually why we are calling for his inclusion.
@ greatness
ALL THE PLAYERS YOU MENTIONED ARE ALL MAIN STRIKER FOR THEIR RESPECTIVE CLUBS. CHUBA AKPOM IS A SUPPORTING STRIKER (not a main striker).
HE NEED TO BE INVITED TO PAIR/COMBINE WITH THE BEST AMOUNG THE MAIN STRIKER(like Osimhen or Moffi)
LIKE THIS:
** OSIMHEN–AKPOM
** MOFFI — AKPOM
NOT LIKE THIS:
** OSIMHEN — IHEANACHO
** OSIMHEN — SADIQ
** OSIMHEN — ONUACHU
** OSIMHEN — AWONIYI
Those ones at the right hand side (IHEANACHO, Sadiq, ONUACHU, Awoniyi) ALL LACK HIGH POTENTIAL, REGULAR PLAYING TIME, CONSISTENT GOALSCORING.
CHUBA AKPOM IS THE BEST NIGERIA SUPPORTING STRIKER IN EUROPE FOR NOW.
### BEST MAIN STRIKER (No. 9)=== V. OSIMHEN
### BEST SUPPORTING STRIKER (No. 8)=== C. AKPOM
I guess you wanted to tag Akp. As for me, I’m more concerned with how to address our midfield problem instead of overloading the striking position with too many bodies. Since it is confirmed that Akpom can play in midfield, I’ll rather have him play as an attacking midfielder with a license to roam into the opposition box and exact his scoring instincts as occasion demands. Something similar to how Lampard used to play. This will be in a midfield diamond combo with Iwobi playing as a box to box midfielder and Onyedika providing cover for the back four. We may discover something exciting by trying out this combination.
If he can play as an attacking Midfielder then excellent…..I also heard Boniface too can play as an attacking Midfielder…..we need a lot of Midfielders mainly creative Midfielders who can unlock the potentials we have in the attack and wings.
Congrats Akpom. Well-deserved award. Hopefully, you get the chance to do the same in a top 5 league in Europe. Onuachu was the record scorer for his clubs in Denmark and Belgium before getting to EPL. At EPL, after many matches he is still trying to fit into the fast pace and dynamic pattern of the premiership.
For now, the leading candidates for the two forward spots are Osi 9, Awo, Moffi, Senior, Boniface, and Gift. Sadiq is still in the picture. These folks have either demonstrated their capabilities at a top 5 league or in European competition.
The same Akpom snubbed the National team for years. He was courted around the same time as Iwobi, the main reason why Iwobi will always be my main guy in SE. Iwobi is a very humble guy not like Eze or Akpom . It is still not a bad idea to give Akpom a look-in, but the point is that he will have to grab the opportunity if given.