Leicester City attacker, Kelechi Iheanacho has overthrown former Super Eagles striker, Yakubu Aiyegbeni as Nigeria’s all-time top scorer in the English FA Cup, following his brace against Peterborough United.
Iheanacho struck twice on Saturday to help The Foxes trounce their lower division opponents 5-1 and seal a spot in the next round, barely two weeks after earlier netting another brace in their ouster of Fleetwood Town.
In doing so, Iheanacho broke a record previously held by Aiyegbeni, as the former Manchester City kid took his tally in the prestigious competition to nine goals in nine appearances.
Yak notched 8 goals in 20 appearances in the FA Cup wearing the jerseys of Reading, Middlesbrough and Portsmouth.
While it took ‘The Yak’ ten years to score eight goals in the FA Cup, Iheanacho became Nigeria’s leading scorer in the FA Cup after only two years.
With six goals from 29 matches, Chelsea right wing-back Victor Moses is the third highest Nigerian scorer in the FA Cup, an honour he shares with ex-Arsenal star Nwanwko Kanu.
Incidentally, Iheanacho was rated Leicester’s joint-best player on Saturday, as he took his goals tally in the competition to nine goals from nine appearances courtesy of his first half-brace at ABAX Stadium.
Iheanacho was awarded eight marks from a possible ten by Leicester Mercury, the same score as Malian debutant Fousseni Diabaté, who also scored twice against the League One foes.
Iheanacho had a game-high three shots on target from his five attempts, as well as a passing accuracy of 83.3 percent and only Fousseni Diabaté and Wilfred Ndidi did better for the players that spent more than 15 minutes on the pitch.
In other statistics, the former Manchester City starlet made two key passes, completed two dribbles, was dispossessed on the ball twice and made 24 passes.
Nigeria’s top-10 scorers in the English FA Cup are: Kelechi Iheanacho – 9 goals, 9 matches, Yakubu Aiyegbeni – 8 goals, 20 matches, Victor Moses – 6 goals, 29 matches, Nwankwo Kanu – 6 goals, 24 matches, Victor Anichebe – 4 goals, 21 matches, Danny Shittu – 4 goals, 12 matches, Emmanuel Emenike – 4 goals, 6 matches, Kayode Odejayi – 3 goals, 26 matches, John Obi Mikel – 3 goals, 32 matches, and Victor Obinna Nsofor, 3 goals, 3 matches.
