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Every Monday, Pulse Sports team of reporters and editors go tête-à-tête over the top sports stories from the weekend. We call this, the Pundits Corner.
While we might regularly go into a weekend without exact knowledge of the things to happen, regularities over the past weeks begin to give some sort of ability to predict the weekend's most likely to happen.
Yet again, it was another weekend for Nigeria's bright and shining stars in men's and women's football - Victor Osimhen and Asisat Oshoala, to give us reasons to talk about them. But while they did their thing, another Nigerian made a return to the spotlight like the prodigal son who returned to his father.
Kelechi Iheanacho resurrects: Should the Super Eagle stay at Leicester?
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From a Nigerian point of view, one of the biggest moments of the weekend was watching Kelechi Iheanacho put up a masterclass of a performance that helped Leicester City fight back from a goal down on two occasions, to defeat Aston Villa 4-2 at the Villa Park.
It became the third time in four matches in all competitions, that Iheanacho had scored for the Foxes when he was played for 60+ minutes.
Interestingly, Leicester City had also now won all three games Iheanacho scored in, of the six he had featured in 2023. For some reason, the 26-year-old Nigerian has been a catalyst to success for Brendan Rodgers' side whenever he was given ample time.
And this, begs the question of whether the King Power Stadium is somewhere Iheanacho should remain.
According to Ayoola Kelechi, our International Football Reporter, the Nigerian needs to make the move as he's been highly underappreciated.
"Iheanacho should absolutely leave Leicester. For some reason, he isn’t appreciated there and his purple patch won't change much as we’ve seen before.
"He needs to go to a club that doesn't play him only when they have to."
"I disagree with this," Senior Editor Solace Chukwu chimed in. "I think there is a bit of a misconception among many people about Brendan Rodgers, and that is colouring many perceptions.
"It's simply a matter of tactical flexibility. As I said in my piece on Saturday, I think Leicester signing Tete will lead to Iheanacho playing more at the King Power.
"While, before this season and this window, I would have advocated Iheanacho leaving, I now think there is a good reason to stick around. Let us see what Rodgers does, but on the evidence of Saturday, things may finally be looking up for the Nigeria international."
Osimhen and Oshoala: Can the clamour for a double African Player of the Year start now? Or is it too early?
While Iheanacho set the Premier League on fire, Nigeria's duo of Osimhen and Oshoala tore Italy's Serie A, and Spain's Liga F apart, scoring a brace and a hattrick respectively.
For Osimhen, his goals in the 3-0 win over Spezia meant that he had now extended his tally to 16 this season, further solidifying his place at the top of the league's goal chart.
For Oshoala, the hattrick in Barcelona's 7-0 demolition of Real Betis was enough to see her overtake Levante's Alba Ferrer Redondo (on 16 goals), to go top of the women's scorers chart, with 17 goals.
While Ayoola stated vehemently that Oshoala had no real rival for the Women's player of the year award, Solace added that for Osimhen, the case was different.
"I think Osimhen has clearly been the most outstanding African player this year, but when it comes to the A-POTY, there clearly will be consideration given to the World Cup, and that may hurt his prospects.
"I have long maintained that international tournaments have too much of an influence on these awards, and it would be interesting to see what CAF decide if Osimhen finishes as Capocannoniere and Napoli claim their first scudetto in over 30 years.
"How do you overlook all that consistency to reward a one-month, seven-match tournament?" he asked in one final breath.
Ayoola: "Oshoala has no real rival. If she stops playing today, she has already done enough this season to be named POTY. When the World Cup comes, I hope she has something for the Super Falcons too."
Weighing in on the topic, Ifeanyi Ufomadu, another member of the International Football desk shared nearly similar sentiment for Osimhen, but added that should the awards be handed out today, Osimhen was the undisputed winner.
"I believe it will be a close call between Thomas Partey and Victor Osimhen for African player of the year but in terms of sheer impact, Osimhen has to be considered the favourite. Not only has he been the best striker in Italy, but there’s also a case to be made that he has been the best striker in all of Europe. Crown him now."
Lagos City Marathon: What would it take for a Nigerian to win this event?
On Saturday, Nigeria as usual played host to what has grown into one of the biggest marathoning events in the world - the Lagos City Marathon. And as is custom, the winners of the men's and women's events were visiting athletes.
While the clamour growth in other aspects of Nigerian sports, and beyond football, remains a thing, a burning question was raised.
"Nigeria cannot win the Lagos City Marathon in the coming years. It's an international race that involves most of the world's best," Hassan Abdulsalam, our Local Sports Reporter who covered the event, said.
"Eastern African countries have been dominating the race due to the fact that they are known for it, the last edition saw only one Nigeria in the top 10.
"For Nigeria to start winning marathons, more needs to invested more in long-distance races from the grassroots with enough exposure and training, then we can start thinking that, maybe, we can win it one day," he concluded.
- All views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the pundits and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Pulse Sports.
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