Nigeria striker, Simy Nwankwo, has been hogging the headlines as the player of the moment in Serie A, for obvious reasons. After hitting two as Crotone pipped Parma 4-3 at the Estadio Ennio Tardini, Simy romped to 19 goals haul, plus two assists so far in the 2020/2021 campaign, with only Cristiano Ronaldo (25 goals/ 2 assists), Romelu Lukaku (21 goals/ 8 assissts) and Luis Muriel (19 goals/8 assists) as the better Serie Astrikers.
The former GUO FC striker has thus helped himself to a great market value with his current fine form for Crotone and now the chances of his staying put in the Serie A side are very few following what has turned out as an unforgottable season for the Nigerian.
Completesports.com called up Giovanni Stroppa – Simy’s longtime coach in Crotone from the summer of 2018 until last February when he was sacked . And the gaffer said interesting things about his former striker. Exclusive Interview By Raffaele Campo
Did you anticipate an incredible goal scoring form for Simy at the beginning of the season?
“From my experience, he [Simy] always scored goals. Last season he made 20 goals in the second division, and the season before it was 14. This is his time.
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“Also last year Simy blossomed exactly between March and April. I regret that he isn’t scoring these goals with me on the bench, but I’m really very happy for Simy. He is a fantastic guy. He started in Crotone in the summer of 2016, but at the beginning he was the third or the fourth choice of the coach.
“He conquered all directly on the pitch. Also technically, he has improved very much, and on this one, I want to take some credit. Surely, the context of the team has helped Simy to score goals, which he does now with more expertise.
“He has to improve in heading and shooting from outside the area. But inside the area, he hardly makes mistakes: he is a killer!”.
Your best moment as Simy Nwankwo’s coach?
“One year ago we were together in the Serie A. As I told you earlier, Simy is a fantastic guy and I always worked very well with him. I wasn’t in Crotone when he arrived in 2016, but I know that at the beginning Simy had some problems, he wasn’t welcomed very well. He earned and conqured all.”
In your last period as Crotone coach, Simy was being put on the bench. Why this decision? Was something going wrong?
“He had to be challenged. The other striker was Riviere, but he often had injuries. Simy has a strong character, so sometimes he had to be put in discussion. Anyway, under me, he played 95 games. Also last year, sometimes he started on the bench, but then – when he came in the second half – he scored goal. This year in Serie A was more difficult, but with me Simy played from the beginning quite often”.
Simy could leave Crotone after this season. Which club do you think will be great for him?
“I think that he can play in any team. His probably departure from Crotone is very good for all the parties. Firstly for the club, which grew up with him and also for the striker. We haven’t forgotten that he is the best Nigerian striker in the history of our Serie A. He is ready for another experience”.
7 Comments
In the yard he is very dangerous, he has to improve in heading and shooting from outside the yard, these are the words of simys coach, and this is the Y I said the last time, that Y is the reason I prefer Sadiq to simy (personally), you can’t fool football expacts with just goals. The way you play football matters alot, and also how you score your goals, the quality of your runs with the ball and how difficult your goals are. When brazil had pato and Adriano era they were more brazilians who scored more goals than pato or Adriano etc but the quality of pato for example was in resistable, even if he scores less goals, if I am national team coach I don’t just go online to check who scores and who didn’t score to begin to reformat my goal scoring team, that will be like playstation child play. The quality and what he brings couple with what I need comes first. musa was bought around 20 mil pounds, iheanacho about 24 mil pounds, iwobi 30 mil to everton osihmen 70 mil to napoli Sadiq is presently valid for over 30 mil’ I read that simy is valid around 8 mil, the question is why is simy valid so low below the above mention names (even after 19 serie A goals) @ jimmy ball; u constantly rank your strikers according to goal numbers which surprises me sometimes bcoz I consider you as a baller’ why is the number of goals not used in paying the bills, osihmen scored less goals 14 or 18 in france and cost napoli 70mil why is simy who scored 19 goals for a stronger league, valid 8mil even Sadiq you places below because of league status is currently though exaggeratedly valid 60 mil I also guess moffi could go up to 40 mil, anthony ujah with all his Bundesliga goals valid less than isaac success, quality of play matters, I don’t blame rohr if he doesn’t fancy simy at the moment bcoz he have better qualities it simple to understand. We should focus on our midfield.
Osimhen cost more because he is much younger.
storry for the gods. simy is 27 to 28, how old was ibrahimovic when he was bought 90 mil he was 27 eto that swaped in the value of 60 mil was 28, hazard that cost 100mil is was 29, c Ronaldo 100mil salah is same age with simy he is cost over 100 mil
@ Greenhorf. You’re wrong. It’s the style of play and not about age. Rasheed yekinini had the same problem between 1986 and 1990 with eagles. In fact siasia would have been the choice for the coach in 1988 nations cup but lockeren fc failed to release siasia.
But rasheed improved and held on to that position for a long time.
How come clubs are not splash lots of money on onuachu and simy. Even if they are not going to pay as much as they paid for oshimen and co, they should still show strong interest. Football had evolved. Coaches and clubs now look for more from players they want sign.
Ndidi is trying to improve too. Despite his exploits in the midefield of leicester for about three years now, clubs are not ready to break the bank for him. But this season we have some levels of improvement in his game for club and national team. Really clubs want players who will play the way Patrick viera played that position. Ndidi is trying to add that to his game now.
There are editors on CSN who twists interviews and contort it to pull traffic here… all of a sudden it’s Simy’s news flooding everywhere. The same coach who praised him in one breath… calling him the best Nigerian striker in Serie A history to date… Cataloging goals he has scored is the one in another breath saying he has to improve his shooting from outside the box and heading… a professional player for that matter… I will pull up a video to shred this fallacious reporting! Wait…
@colinsId, age plays major role in any footballer, especially black Africans, because there is no proper birth data. Simmy will turn 29 in few days. If simmy is 21 or 22, he will cost more!.
@Barth how come he did not cost more when he was younger??? He has been scoring goals in either serie A or B.