Tolu Arokodare Waiting on Eagles’ Wings

Following his impressive performance in the Belgian Jupiler League, KRC Genk Nigeria forward, Tolu Arokodare has expressed his desire to play for Nigeria’s national football team, Super Eagles. In an exclusive interview with Tribal Football, Arokodare acknowledged the quality of fire-power possessed by the Super Eagles, stressing that he is in no rush to get into the team, whilst also affirming that the opportunity would come once the time was ripe 

we have a huge talent in our attack obviously and the whole squad is full of talents.

“I haven’t been contacted by the NFF, but with time, if I keep performing right and doing the right things, I think I will get that call soon, and me not being called up, I think it’s not my time and I think the players that are being called up before me, they worked to be in that position, they deserved every invitation to the Super Eagles. I just need to have patience and work harder,” he said.

The striker’s sensational form has catapulted KRC Genk to the top of the table with a three-point lead, sparking hopes of a national team call-up.

The 23-year-old has been unstoppable, scoring six goals in 10 games and catching the attention of Nigerian football fans.

Arokodare is the top-scoring Nigerian player in the top 15 European leagues, placing first ahead of Victor Boniface, Akor Adams, Victor Olatunji, Victor Osimhen, Ademola Lookman and Gift Orban.

His impressive display has also sparked interest from top European clubs, with Trabzonspor reportedly showing interest in the summer.

Indeed, the KRC Genk striker has revealed his admiration for Osimhen, whilst hinting he’ll love to play in the English Premier League in the future.

The 23-year-old has been in his best form since joining the Belgian side this season, scoring six times for Thorsten Fink’s side, making him the league’s top scorer.

While his form has been impressive, a call-up to the Nigerian National team has eluded him, but nonetheless, he’s revealed his love for two of the nation’s top strikers, Osimhen and Boniface.

Quizzed about what he thinks of Osimhen’s decision to quit Napoli for Galatasaray, the 6 ft 6-inch tall striker said, “I don’t think that’s my business, I mean if he moved to Chelsea, Real Madrid or to anywhere. Whatever decisions he makes, that’s the best for him, he knows what he wants and he makes the decisions, so I have no say in that. He is someone that I look out for. I have always admired him, whatever he thinks is best for him. I mean you can see he is there already, I think he has two goals and two assists. He is having a big impact already in Turkey.”

While Bayer 04 Leverkusen’s Boniface has been vocal about his preference for football outside of the English Premier League, Arokodare reveals his stance is different.

“Boniface saying he doesn’t want to play in the Premier league, that’s his preference. Everyone has what they want for themselves and he has his style of play, he knows the kind of football he wants and we all are different human beings and we all know what we want.

“For me, I would love to play in the Premier League, it will be a dream come true for me. “Everyone is there, but can’t want the same thing. If he says the Premier League isn’t his style then we have to respect his taste and decisions,” the former FC Koln man told Tribal Football.Interim Super Eagles coach, Augustine Eguavoen, admitted he considered Arokodare when he picked his squadlist for the upcoming AFCON 2025 qualifiers against Libya, but he opted for Taiwo Awoniyi and Kelechi Iheanacho.

Arokodare completed a stunning switch from Amiens FC to KRC Genk in Belgium on the brink of the 2022-23 January transfer deadline, following the departure of their star player, Paul Onuachu, to Southampton.

After moving to the Luminus Arena, Arokodare said it was the finest professional decision he had ever made.

Before making his debut, the head of football for Genk, indicated that the Nigerian was the best stand-in for Onuachu, and that there was no one better.

For Amiens SC, Arokodare was not at his best during last season, and his scoring ability was not up to pace. The Nigerian averaged 0.36 goals per game, converting just 11 per cent of his goal chances into actual goals, while scoring 21 goals and dishing out four assists for the French team.

For a striker who started out as a true goal hacker at Valmiera FC in the Latvian league, with 22 goals in 34 games, these are by no means remarkable numbers. But after that, Arokodare failed to demonstrate his ability as a productive and efficient striker at either FC Köln or Amiens SC.

He was particularly unsteady in France, and his attacking stats throughout his stay at Amiens were below par, culminating in former manager, Philippe Hinschberger aiming cheap shots at Arokodare after the youngster completed his move from Amiens to Genk.

In France, Arokodare worked together with Hinschberger for a year and a half where he scored 21 goals and added four assists in 63 matches.

While admitting that the young Nigerian has talent, Hinschberger is not unhappy that Arokodare has left Amiens.

And the former Metz manager is full of knocks for Arokodare, insisting that he found it hard to work with the forward because he was not open to learning.

“Tolu is a player who needs a lot of time and energy. He is still in raw form,” Hinschberger said hours after Arokodare left for Belgium.

“From time to time, you want to make him work on passing, control, or his back-to-goal game. I think he has to get it into his head that he’s a young player who needs to develop. From time to time, he forgets it and he trains like a pro who has a 15-year career.

“The misunderstanding that we both may have had was that I was asking him to work on his qualities. He’s still a youngster who needs to do a lot of basic things, and that’s not too much into it.

However, after a few training sessions with Arokodare, Genk’s manager, Vrancken sang the praises of the 23-year-old.

Throwing Hinschberger’s claims into the trash can, Vrancken is delighted that Arokodare is ‘eager’ to take in new knowledge.

“He is more explosive than Onuachu, who of course already has more experience as a finisher,” Vrancken said, as per VoetbalKrant.

“But Tolu is a young player with a lot of potential, he was at the top of our wish list. He has a good bounce and is very eager to learn. He asks a lot of questions, which I think is very positive.

“We are patient with him because all our game principles are new to him. Both offensively and defensively. He was used to being played on his body, after which they would see what happened. That is why we will work intensively with him in the coming weeks,” Vrancken had said of the Nigerian.

Arokodare’s journey to stardom began in Latvia with Valmiera before moving to Koln and Amiens, where he played alongside Gael Kakuta and Papiss Dembe Cisse.

These experiences, he claimed, have shaped him into the player he is today.