Goal has
ranked Sunday Mba as the 24 best player of the 2013 football year ahead of the
likes of Ibrahimovic, Suarez, Isco, Mata and Lampard. Hazard and Oscar didn’t
even make the list. This is a first time ranking for Mba in the annual goalcom
top 50 after he became a revelation for the Super Eagles in the recently
concluded AFCON which he scored to clinch the title.
When
Keshi decided to take Mba along with five other home based players to the AFCON
tournament he had a lot of raised eyebrows but the 24-year-old played better
than many of the nation’s more heralded foreign contingent.
Having
started the tournament on the bench, Mba was Nigeria’s hero in the knockout
stages. He scored the winner in the quarter-final against Cote d’Ivoire to
spell the end for Didier Drogba’s trophy-less ‘golden generation’. Then in the
final itself, Mba fired home the only goal against Burkina Faso to gift Nigeria
their first AFCON title since 1994.
The
24-year-old was also one of Nigeria’s best performers at the Confederations Cup
and has helped to draw attention to the depth of talent in the Nigerian league.
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