What has happened to Kelechi Iheanacho, the starlet that was supposed to hoist the Super Eagles back to its glory days?
Well, he’s been dropped from the AFCON 2019 squad and continually faces an uphill task getting a starting shirt at Leicester.
How has Kelechi fallen this far?
After quite a number of eye-catching performances at the U-17 World Cup with the Golden Eaglets, Iheanacho had clubs including Arsenal and FC Porto vying for his signature but in the end, Manchester City won the race for his signature and even though he wouldn’t play a competitive game, many believe this was where he made his first misstep.
Iheanacho signed a pre-contract agreement with City back in December 2012 before joining their academy in January of 2014. Even though he wouldn’t play a competitive game for City until 2015, the Imo-born starlet started out like a house on fire scoring in his very first match for City and then scoring again in his second match against AC Milan.
The youngster’s Midas goal-scoring touch was so prolific that he ended his first full season with City in the Premier League as the player with the best goals-per-minute ratio with a goal scored every 93.9 minutes. He ended the season with 14 goals and 5 assists in 35 matches. Out of those 35 matches, Iheanacho started only 11.
His second season in City colors was not so prolific. This coincided with Pep Guardiola’s arrival at the club. He scored seven goals in 29 matches and was sold to Leicester City at the end of the season.
In two full seasons at Leicester, the forward has scored a paltry 10 goals in 63 appearances.
What has truly gone wrong with Iheanacho then? A glaring miss against former club Man City at the tail-end of the season seemed to surmise the former starlet’s season. See below:
While some have come out to say that Guardiola is to blame for pushing the City prospect out of the club, others are of the belief that Iheanacho is not putting in the hard work required to help him reach the heights that are expected of him.
It has been argued that going to Man City in the first place was a misstep as he should have made his bones at a smaller club.
That argument falls flat simply because Iheanacho flourished for the most part at City over two seasons. On the other hand, Leicester City is a smaller club and Iheanacho has massively struggled to get enough minutes in the field of play.
Factor in Russia 2018 World Cup campaign and it’s clear to see that if Kelechi doesn’t figure out a solution to this rapid descent, he might just be another one in a long line of Nigerian starlet who simply dropped the ball and never really succeeded as the nation had expected and hoped.
Soccer Gist 