By Nelson Dafe on October 2, 2018

When professional clubs make an investment on a striker, the hope is that the investment would yield results in the form of goals that would fire the club to a higher level. So it was with Swedish club Vaxjo United who took the leap of faith to sign young Nigerian forward Pascal Durugbor from a Nigerian grassroots Club, Rock Stars FC of Benin City in January this year after watching him impress in a Tiki Taka program late last year. 

To say that Vaxjo United's investment on Durugbor has yielded the desired results for the third division side would be to utter an understatement. The lad has taken the opportunity by the scruff of its neck, scoring goals for fun left, right and center. 

Last weekend Durugbor netted his 18th league goal for Vaxjo, scoring a late winner in his side's 2-1 win against  Älmhults IF. The win saw Vaxjo effectively topping the division and secures them automatic promotion to the second Division. 

Amongst Nigerian players across all the divisions of European football, Durugbor has proven this season to be one of the most lethal finishers. 

Overall the tall and very athletic lad has found the back of the net 30 times this season in both league and Cup matches. He's got 12 goals in the  prestigious Hyundai Cup in Sweden. 

Durugbor is a street-wise attacker who impressed Benin City fans with a knack of scoring goals with seeming ease during his grassroots days and he’s exported this quality to Sweden in a fierce fashion. 

What makes him such a good striker? The answer is a number of reasons. 

Talk about a fox in the box and you're talking about Pascal. He has a knack for sprinting to life unexpectedly in the 18-yard box and finding spaces in tight areas to evade defenders and deliver killer punches. 

This of course has to do with a strong sense of spatial awareness to time runs to devastating effects. 

Another key attribute of Pascal is that he is very lethal with both his right as well as his left foot. He's so difficult to predict once he's in the box. He could hit a shot one minute with a particular foot and the next, with the ball in that same foot, he could sell a dummy and the fire home with the other. 

Forget the fact it's the 3rd division. 30 goals and counting in a season is by no means an easy feat. To lead a club to promotion to the second Division is the stuff a great rising profile is made of. 

Now the talk is that Durugbor is primed for a more challenging league and division. His stellar form is one that is guaranteed to attract attention from top sides in Europe and there are whispers of a number of big sides in Europe and America making serious inquiries. 

The 18-year old Durugbor is managed by Nigerian agent Ferdinand Oji, president of Chinice Sports Investment Company. 

Mr Oji is a very keen football investor in Benin City who is fast becoming popular in the Nigerian Football space owing to his intelligent and aggressive drive towards getting the best deals for talented young players. 

The young licenced players intermediary has aided the rise of Durugbor to get to this enviable level and it is to him that the young lad entrusts the task of negotiating a better deal that would reflect the current high profile of the player as a goals machine. 

As Nigeria continues to battle to qualify for the under-20, it is only fitting that only players who are currently in top form for their clubs get a call up to the national team. 

The NFF technical department should be on the lookout for the best legs around the world to give Nigeria a good chance of not only qualifying for the world cup but also of winning it for the first time in the history of the country. 

Durugbor's goalscoring abilities could just be the difference between Nigeria and a tropy-winning ending at the 22nd edition of the FIFA under-20 World Cup scheduled to hold in Portugal in 2019. 

•Photo shows Durugbor scoring for Vaxjo

Source Daily Sports

Posted October 2, 2018

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