Nigeria has always produced strikers worth arguing about. From Rashidi Yekini to Obafemi Martins, the debate over who leads the Super Eagles’ attack never really goes away. Right now, though, the conversation has moved to Turkey, because two of Nigeria’s most productive forwards are both tearing through the Süper Lig at the same time, at rival clubs, in one of the most unexpected stories in African football.
Paul Onuachu at Trabzonspor. Victor Osimhen at Galatasaray. Same country of origin, same league, completely different profiles. And both have had seasons good enough to demand a proper look.
The Context: Two Nigerians, One League
When Osimhen arrived at Galatasaray on loan from Napoli in September 2024, most people assumed this would be a straightforward case of Europe’s most expensive African striker taking Turkey by storm. The numbers ended up justifying that assumption, but nobody quite expected Onuachu to push back the way he did.
Onuachu had already done a loan stint at Trabzonspor in 2023-24, scoring 15 goals in 21 league appearances. That was good enough to convince the club to make the move permanent in the summer of 2025. His second season in Trabzon became the best of his career.
Meanwhile, Osimhen, born in Lagos and raised on dreams fuelled by watching Didier Drogba, had his own Turkish chapter to write after a frustrating period when Napoli refused to sell him to PSG. The 2024-25 season turned into something historic.
Paul Onuachu: The Quiet Monster
There is no flashier way to put this: Onuachu at Trabzonspor has been relentless. At 2.01 metres, he is the kind of striker who makes goalkeepers rethink their career choices before a corner even comes in.
In his first full season (2025-26), he finished joint top scorer in the Süper Lig with 22 league goals, sharing the golden boot with Başakşehir’s Eldor Shomurodov. That tally made him the sixth player in Trabzonspor’s history to win the club’s top-scorer title, a list that includes Alexander Sörloth (24 goals, 2019-20) and the legendary Şota Arveladze. He scored 22 goals and added two assists in 2,152 minutes across the season, accounting for roughly 40% of Trabzonspor’s entire league output.
To put that workload plainly: nearly half the goals from a club chasing the title came from one man.
His first loan spell in 2023-24 saw 15 goals in 21 league appearances. Add the Turkish Cup contributions, and he finished that season with 17 goals in 25 appearances. Across both spells at Trabzonspor combined, 52 official matches, he has scored 39 goals. That kind of return at club level doesn’t lie.
What makes Onuachu work in Turkey is the directness. He does not need the ball at his feet for twenty seconds. Give him a cross, a set piece, or a half-yard in the box, and he will punish you. His conversion rate from shots this season sat at 0.73 goals per game. In his decisive stretches, scoring in four consecutive league games around week 22, he did it against Fenerbahçe, not against the bottom half.
The 28th-week win over Galatasaray, where he headed in a fourth-minute opener, felt like the season in miniature: early, physical, decisive.
Victor Osimhen: The Record-Breaker
Osimhen’s 2024-25 season at Galatasaray ended up in a different category entirely.
He scored 35 goals in 39 official matches, making him the most prolific foreign scorer in a single season in Turkish football history. He overtook the record previously held by former Galatasaray striker Mario Jardel, who had held it for over two decades. On top of that, he finished the Süper Lig as the league’s top scorer with 26 goals, and helped Galatasaray win the domestic double, both the Süper Lig title and the Turkish Cup.
The cup final alone told you everything about his calibre. Osimhen scored a brace against Trabzonspor in the 3-0 victory, taking his tally to that 35-goal record. One month earlier, in March 2025, he scored his first Galatasaray hat-trick in a 4-0 win over Antalyaspor. His bicycle kick goal in that same fixture was later voted Süper Lig Goal of the Season.
He also became the first player since 2014-15 to either score or assist in each of his first six Super Lig appearances, a stat that tells you his adaptation period at the club was basically zero.
In the 2025-26 season, now a permanent signing after a deal confirmed in July 2025 on a contract running to 2029, Osimhen has continued. Fifteen goals and five assists in the current campaign as of mid-May 2026, with a FotMob average rating of 7.76, among the highest for strikers in the league. His market value sits at €76.7 million, making him comfortably one of the most expensive players in the Süper Lig.
Head-to-Head: Stats Comparison
| Category | Paul Onuachu (Trabzonspor) | Victor Osimhen (Galatasaray) |
|---|---|---|
| Age | 31 (born May 28, 1994) | 27 (born Dec 29, 1998) |
| Height | 2.01m | 1.86m |
| Current Club | Trabzonspor | Galatasaray |
| 2024-25 League Goals | 22 (shared Golden Boot) | 26 (top scorer) |
| 2024-25 All-Comp Goals | ~24 | 35 |
| 2025-26 League Goals (to May 2026) | 22 (shared Golden Boot) | 15 |
| Career Super Lig Goals (2 seasons) | 37 (loan + permanent) | 41 (loan + permanent) |
| Super Eagles Caps/Goals | ~35 apps / ~10 goals | 52 caps / 35 goals |
| Market Value (2026) | €5.7M | €76.7M |
| Key Accolade in Turkey | Trabzonspor’s all-time top scorer list | All-time foreign player goals record (35) |
| Playing Style | Aerial, physical, box presence | Mobile, explosive, technically gifted |
Super Eagles Contribution
Nationally, the gap between them is harder to ignore. Osimhen has 35 goals in 52 international appearances, making him Nigeria’s all-time top scorer, a number that gets bigger with each tournament. He appeared at the 2019, 2023, and 2025 Africa Cup of Nations, reaching the final of the 2023 edition. He also won the Golden Boot at the 2015 FIFA U-17 World Cup, where Nigeria were champions.
Onuachu’s Super Eagles record is less prominent, though he has featured regularly enough. He was called up for the 2023 AFCON as injury cover and made the squad again for the 2025 edition. At club level, he has consistently delivered; the translation to international football has been harder to sustain.
On that front, this is not really a fair fight. Osimhen owns the Nigerian record and owns the conversation at the senior level.
2024-25 Season Recap: Goals and Key Moments
Victor Osimhen – 2024-25 Highlights
| Competition | Goals | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Süper Lig | 26 | Top scorer; title winner |
| Turkish Cup | 2 | Brace in final vs. Trabzonspor |
| UEFA Europa League | 6 | Including brace vs. Tottenham |
| AFCON / Other | 1 | — |
| Total | 35 | All-time foreign player record in Turkey |
Paul Onuachu – 2025-26 Highlights
| Competition | Goals | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Süper Lig | 22 | Shared Golden Boot with Shomurodov |
| Turkish Cup | 2 | — |
| Total | ~24 | Career-best club season |
Victor Osimhen – 2025-26 Highlights
| Competition | Goals | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Süper Lig | 15 | – |
| Turkish Cup | – | — |
| Total | ~15 | – |
Different Players, Different Eras
The honest answer to “who is Turkey’s top Super Eagles striker” depends on the season you’re asking about.
In 2024-25, it was Osimhen, and it wasn’t particularly close. Thirty-five goals in a single season, a new record, a domestic double, that’s a generational kind of output, regardless of the league. The Süper Lig is not the Premier League, but it is not a retirement destination either. Osimhen’s goals came against proper opposition, including European nights.
In 2025-26, Onuachu has matched Osimhen’s league tally at the halfway point of each respective run, finished joint top scorer, and done it as the primary, sometimes only, attacking threat at a club that punched above its weight all season. Osimhen has 15 league goals in the same campaign, still excellent for a striker of his calibre, but no longer the runaway number.
The other thing that separates them beyond stats is trajectory. Osimhen, at 27, has his best years ahead of him and is already in conversations about the Premier League and beyond. Onuachu, at 31, found in Trabzonspor the environment where everything clicked: the physicality of the league suits him, the service suits him, and the fact that the team is built around him suits him enormously. Whether he can repeat 22 goals next season is the real question.
Final Verdict
Victor Osimhen is the better footballer by almost every measure: international record, European pedigree, market value, and technical ability. The 2024-25 season was among the best by any Nigerian player in European club football in years.
But Paul Onuachu’s Trabzonspor story is more interesting than it gets credit for. A striker who spent years being called “atypical” and “too big to be agile”, who flopped at Southampton and was written off in England, has come to Turkey and been, for two consecutive seasons, the most dependable finisher in the Black Sea region. There is something worth respecting in that.
Both men are doing Nigeria proud in the Süper Lig. They just happen to be doing it at clubs that will meet in cup finals and title races. For Nigerian football fans watching from Lagos to London, that is a genuinely good problem to have.
