Following his recent performance for KAA Gent, Nigerian striker Gift Orban has been nominated for the UEFA Europa Conference League Player and Goal of the Week awards.
On March 15, Orban gained notoriety for scoring three goals for Belgium in their 4-1 Europa Conference League victory over Istanbul Basaksehir.
With goals in the 31st, 32nd, and 34th minutes, Orban completed the competition’s fastest hat-trick ever.
The victory enabled Gent to advance to the quarterfinal with a 5-2 overall record.
According to the report by Complete Sports, the brilliant performance of Orban was noted and therefore nominated for both of the awards.
Orban among the nominees West Ham United’s Jarrod Bowen, AZ Alkmaar’s Jesper Karlssson, and Anderlecht’s Bert Verbruggen are the other players nominated for the Player of the Week award. Among the nominees for the Goal of the Week prize are Bowen again, Sivasspor’s Erdogan Yesilyurt, and Gaetan Laborde of OGC Nice.
Has Orban earned Nigeria call-up?
Previously, tere were calls by fans for Nigeria head coach, Jose Peseiro to invite Orban into the Super Eagles squad for the coming AFCON qualifiers, but this did not happen. He will have to continue working hard at his club for a possible future call-up and fans believe it is only a matter of time.
Nigeria wonderkid Gift Orban just scored a hat-trick in three minutes in the Conference League 🦅 pic.twitter.com/yMyrsOxlWz
— GOAL (@goal) March 15, 2023
Peseiro calls up Iwobi, Musa Sports Brief previously reported on coach Peseiro releasing the Super Eagles squad list of 23 players to face Guinea Bissau in the AFCON qualifiers.
As expected, Napoli forward Victor Osimhen, Nigeria’s captain Ahmed Musa, Ademola Lookman and Alex Iwobi all made it into the country’s squad.
Osimhen is the man of the moment in the Italian Serie A and fans back home are expecting him to excel on the pitch for the Super Eagles too.