Three of Nigeria’s best forwards namely, Victor Osimhen (Galatasaray); Victor Boniface (Bayer Leverkusen) and Ademola Lookman of Atalanta have been nominated for the top award of the 11th edition of the Nigeria Pitch Awards.

Osimhen won the top Nigerian football award at the last edition last year in addition to also winning the King of the Pitch gong. The Napoli striker now on loan at Turkish giants Galatasaray was also the reigning CAF African Player of the Year.

However, Lookman who led Atalanta to win the Europa League succeeded Osimhen as Africa Player of the Year and is being tipped to also win the Nigerian Pitch Award.

Both players are also in the running for the King of the Pitch Award. The third nominee is Captain of the Super Eagles,William Troost-Ekong of Saudi Arabia’s Al-kholood FC.

Troost-Ekong is also nominated in the Defender of the Year category alongside Nottingham Forest’s Ola Aina and Calvin Bassey of Fulham FC.

For the Midfielder of the Year category, Alex Iwobi (Fulham FC), Frank Onyeka (FC Augsburg) and Leicester City’s Wilfred Ndidi are the nominated players for the award.

Remo Stars’ Kayode Bankole who has powered the Ikenne club to the top of the NPFL is the home-based player in contention for the Goalkeeper of the Year award along with Maduka Okoye of Udinese  and Stanley Nwabali of South Africa’s Chippa United

The trio of Rasheedat Ajibade of Atlético de Madrid Femenino; Asisat Oshoala of USA’s Bay FC and Chiamaka Nnadozie of Paris FC were also nominated for the Queen of the Pitch category with all eyes on Nnadozie to pick the award due to her stellar performance for both club and country in the past season.

For the Coach of the Year, Moses Adukwu (Edo Queens FC),

Fidelis Ilechukwu of Rangers International FC and Daniel Ogunmodede Remo Stars FC are the nominees in that category.

There are several other categories of the award to be given out at the yet to be announced date.

Speaking at the media briefing to herald the award yesterday at BON Hotel in Ikeja GRA, Lagos, President of the Pitch Awards, Mr Sina Phillips, thanked the College of Voters who have remained steadfast over the last decade of the awards.

“As organisers, we are very proud of and deeply appreciative of our College of Voters whose decisions year after year have shown them to be true and selfless patriots.”

He said that the award process has been designed in such a way that it will not only be transparent but also sustainable.

“This is why the award process transcend organizers’ personal influence while putting the responsibility of deciding winners in the hands of professional journalists with many years of experience, knowledge and expertise in reporting and analyzing football.

The Nigeria Pitch Awards chief organiser, also paid glowing appreciation to SIAO Partners who in the last decade have conferred integrity on the award through their diligent handling of the voting process leading to the winners emerging.