TIMELINE: Amokachi, Babayaro, Onuachu… Nigerians who have won best African player award in Belgium

Paul Onuachu, Super Eagles forward, on Monday night, ended Nigeria’s twenty-five-year wait to win the Ebony Shoe award — the top prize given annually to the best African player in Belgium.

Onuachu became the fifth Nigerian player to win the award after beating Lukas Nmecha, Theo Bongonda and Clinton Mata to the gong.

Below is a timeline of when Nigerian players have won the Ebony Shoe award from 1992 till date.

Amokachi (1992)

Daniel ‘Da Bull’ Amokachi won the first-ever Ebony Shoe award in 1992 when he was plying his trade for Club Brugge.

Ikpeba (1993)

Victor Ikpeba — in the colour of RFC Liege — pipped Amokachi and Chidi Nwanu to the award, having scored 17 goals in the 1992/93 Belgium Jupiter League. This made it the first-ever and only time that players from the same country would emerge as the three finalists.

Amokachi (1994)

Amokachi also claimed the award for a second time to become one of the players to have won it more than once.

Okpara (1995)

Godwin Okpara, a defender with Eendracht Aalst, beat Celestine Babayaro, his fellow countryman, and Ghana’s Yaw Preko to win the award in 1995.

Babayaro (1996)

Celestine Babayaro, in the colours of Anderlecht, beat Zaire’s duo of Michel Ngonge and Jean-Claud Mukanya to the award in 1996.

Onuachu (2021)

Twenty-five years after Babayaro won it, Onuachu ended the drought for the nation after a scintillating 2020/21 season with KRC Genk. The 27-year-old also won the Belgium League highest goal scorer as well as the best player of the season in this term.