Victor Osimhen voted eighth best player in the world at Fifa's 2023 Ballon d’Or awards

SUPER Eagles striker Victor Osimhen was voted the eighth best footballer in the world yesterday  making him the highest ever ranked Nigerian player as he was one of the 30 honoured at Fifa's 2023 Ballon d’Or awards yesterday.

At the prestigious awards ceremony which took place in Paris, France Osimhen was voted number eight in a contest won by Inter Miami and Argentina striker Lionel Messi for a record eighth time. Other players in the top 10 were Erling Haaland, Kylian Mbappé, Kevin De Bruyne, Rodri, Vinicius Jr, Julián Álvarez, Osimhen, Bernardo Silva and Luka Modric respectively.

This is the highest any Nigerian has ever ranked in the Ballon do'r as six Nigerians have been nominated for the award in the past.  Nwankwo Kanu finished 11th at the 1996 event, Finidi George ended up  21st in 1995, while Victor Ikpeba was ranked 32nd in 1997.

Daniel Amokachi was nominated in 1995 but received no vote, Austin Okocha was nominated in 1995 and 1996 but got no vote both times and Sunday Oliseh was nominated in 1998 but got no vote either. Osimhen has thus set a new national record based on his stellar performance last season, during which he scored 26 goals for Napoli and led the side to their first Italian league title in more than three decades.