Super Eagles star and Genk striker, Paul Onuachu has become the first Nigerian player to win the Belgian Golden Shoe.
Onuachu who joined Genk on August 2019 from FC Midtjylland, was recently named the winner of the Belgium Golden Boot for 2021.
He was voted ahead of the Club Brugge duo of Noa Lang and Charles De Ketelaere, who were favourites to clinch the most prestigious individual award in Belgian football.
Prior to his famous win, no Nigerian had ever scooped the award given in Belgium at the beginning of each year to the best footballer of the Belgian First Division A for the past year.
He becomes the fourth African to bag the award, others being Ivorian Aruna Dindane in 2003, Morocco’s Mbark Boussoufa twice in 2006 and 2010, and Democratic Republic of Congo’s Dieumerci Mbokani in 2012.
The 27-year-old striker who missed the ongoing Africa Cup of Nation due to injury, polled 333 votes to beat the Club Brugge duo of Noa Lang (272 votes) and Charles De Ketelaere (271 votes) to second and third, respectively.
With the win, Onuachu becomes only the third Genk player in history to be named Belgium’s best player and the first in 20 years.
