NPFL: Nasarawa United’s Anas Yusuf leads golden boot race with 17 targets

With simply two matchdays left within the 2024/2025 Nigeria Premier Soccer League (NPFL) season, Anas Yusuf of Nasarawa United has emerged because the league’s main scorer, topping the Golden Boot race with 17 targets.

Yusuf’s tally, comprising 14 targets from open play and three penalties, units him aside from the remainder of the league’s forwards and factors to his consistency and scientific edge in entrance of purpose.

Regardless of his particular person brilliance, Nasarawa United sit eleventh on the desk with 49 factors, embroiled in a decent mid-table contest.

Whereas the membership is not in competition for continental qualification, Yusuf’s targets have been important in serving to the workforce avoid relegation considerations.

Chasing Yusuf are three gamers tied on 12 targets: Anthony Ijoma Dessouza (Abia Warriors), Shola Adelani (Ikorodu Metropolis), and Rabiu Ali (Kano Pillars).

Dessouza has performed a significant position in Abia Warriors’ shock surge to 3rd place with 57 factors, scoring all 12 targets from open play. Equally, Adelani’s affect has been central to Ikorodu Metropolis’s spectacular debut season within the NPFL, with the newcomers presently fourth on the desk with 56 factors.

Veteran midfielder Rabiu Ali, popularly referred to as “Pele,” continues to defy age. At 43, he has scored 12 targets, together with six penalties, holding Kano Pillars in a decent eighth place with 50 factors.

A number of different gamers are making notable contributions in each title races and relegation battles. Ahmed Musa, a former NPFL prime scorer within the 2009/10 season, has netted eight targets for Rivers United, all from open play. Now 15 years after his breakout season, Musa stays a dependable attacking menace.

Additionally in type is Joseph Atule of Enyimba, whose seven targets have helped the Individuals’s Elephant stay in competition for continental qualification in fifth place with 55 factors.

Nevertheless, for gamers like Ossy Martins (Lobi Stars) and Isaac Saviour (Rangers), their efforts have fallen brief. Lobi Stars have already been relegated, whereas Rangers have been dethroned as champions by Remo Stars.

Within the decrease half of the desk, strikers equivalent to Emmanuel Ogbolu (Kwara United) and Mustapha Ibrahim (El-Kanemi Warriors), each with seven targets, are battling to maintain their groups protected from the drop. Kwara and El-Kanemi sit thirteenth and fifteenth respectively.

With Remo Stars already topped champions and Rivers United pushing for second place with 61 factors, the ultimate two matchdays are set to ship intense motion throughout the league—from the combat for continental slots to the scramble for survival.