Onuachu: ‘I’m Focused on My Team, Not Competing with Osimhen, Others’
As the 2025/26 Turkish Super Lig season kicks off this weekend, all eyes are on the Nigerian forwards lighting up the league—none more so than Paul Onuachu, who returns to Trabzonspor with renewed energy and a clear message: he’s not chasing rivals, he’s chasing excellence for his team.
‘Football is a fighting game,’ Onuachu told reporters at the Mehmet Ali Yılmaz Facilities. ‘There will always be competition, but my priority is what I can bring to Trabzonspor—how I can help the team and improve myself.’
Onuachu was the top-scoring Nigerian in the Super Lig during the 2023/24 season, netting 17 goals in 25 appearances. But his record was shattered last season when Victor Osimhen arrived and exploded with 26 goals in 30 league matches, and 37 goals in 41 games across all competitions.
The Nigerian presence in Turkey runs deep. Henry Onyekuru, now back in the Super Lig, scored 14 goals in the 2018/19 season and 28 goals in 83 appearances across four seasons.
Anthony Nwakaeme, a Trabzonspor fan favorite before Onuachu’s arrival, scored 42 goals in 140 Super Lig matches over five seasons, hitting double digits in three of those campaigns.
With Osimhen, Onuachu, Onyekuru, and Nwakaeme all active in the league this season, fans in Turkey and Nigeria are bracing for a thrilling battle to see which Nigerian striker will reign supreme.
For Onuachu, however, the return to Trabzonspor is more than a numbers game—it’s personal.
‘It makes me very happy to be here again,’ he said. ‘When you come back to a place where you’ve played before and the fans love you, you want to give everything. I can feel their love, and I’m here with a different energy.’
He revealed that his desire to return began the moment he left. ‘I knew how much the fans wanted me back, and I wanted to return. But football is a business. I had to respect the club I was under contract with. I expressed my wish to come back, and although it didn’t happen then, now we’re together again.’
