Paul Onuachu is having the finest season of his career at Trabzonspor, yet his output for the Super Eagles has never matched that club form, Footynaija.com reports.
Former Nigeria international Garba Lawal, who represented the country at two World Cups and four AFCON tournaments, believes the answer is not in the striker’s ability but in how he is deployed.
Onuachu joined Trabzonspor permanently last July after an initial loan spell in the 2023-24 season, during which he scored 15 goals in 21 league appearances.
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He has taken things further this time around. Across all competitions this season, the 31-year-old has scored 25 goals and provided two assists in 26 appearances, leading the Süper Lig scoring charts and accounting for nearly 40 percent of Trabzonspor’s league goals.
He is now three goals away from matching the record for the most prolific foreign player in Trabzonspor’s history in a single season, a mark set by Georgian forward Shota Arveladze with 25 goals back in 1995-96.
Lawal says Super Eagles camp is never long enough
That kind of dominance has never translated to international level, and Lawal, as revealed by Footy Africa, has an explanation.
“He is an excellent striker, and his quality is a major reason he’s finding the back of the net consistently,” Lawal said.
“His height makes him an ideal point man, capable of leading the line alone or playing with his back to goal.”
The 1996 Olympic gold medallist then turned to the structural differences between club and country.
“It’s important to remember that national team football is a different ball game,” he explained.
“You might only get two or three sessions before a match. If you don’t produce instantly, you risk being dropped.”
At 2.01 metres tall, Onuachu is one of the most physically imposing forwards in Turkish football, and Trabzonspor coach Fatih Tekke has highlighted his hold-up play as particularly valuable, noting that his ability to retain possession in the first half gave the team a crucial outlet under pressure.
That kind of sustained tactical relationship takes time to build, which is precisely what international windows rarely allow.
Onuachu has earned 30 caps for Nigeria and scored four goals across a career that has often seen him used sparingly at tournament level.
Whether Eric Chelle finds a way to integrate him more effectively remains one of the more interesting questions heading into the next Super Eagles cycle.
