Young Nigerian midfielder Ebenezer Akinsanmiro made a winning debut for Inter Milan in their 4-0 win against Lecce in the Serie A on Sunday.
Akinsanmiro, a former player at Remo, was introduced in the 76th minute with Inter already 4-0 up.
The 19-year-old joins the likes of Nwankwo Kanu, Taribo West, Obafemi Martins, Nwankwo Obiora, Joel Obi and Obinna Nsofor as Nigerians who have played for Inter.
Despite coming in with less than 20 minutes left to play, Akinsanmiro won his three duels and created one chance.
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Inter are now on 66 points and go nine points clear of second placed Juventus in the league standings.
Also, it is now 10 straight wins for the former Serie A champions.
Akinsanmiro started playing professionally for Remo Stars in 2020 and was part of the team that qualified the club from the Nigeria National League (NNL) to the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) in the 2020/2021 season league.
On 31 January 2023, Inter Milan signed him on a four-year contract and on 24 May 2023 Inter won its ninth Coppa Italia title, with Akinsanmiro an unused substitute on the bench.
22 Comments
Akinsanmiran is the future of the super eagle’s midfield….Very creative and sleek in his movement…..so talented!
Extremely proud of this young man. He is the piece the Super Eagles are currently missing in the midfield. He only needs a bit of time to fully develop. I am hyped!
He has to start getting invites and testing it out now at international level…
Started playing professionally just in 2020 starting with the NNL with Remo Stars. In just about 4 years he’s breaking into Inter’s first team, about to win the coveted series A, and make SE debut!
What a meteoric rise that’s nothing short of grace!
More midfield discoveries, please. We are currently thin in that department. We need more options in both DM and AM roles.
He started with the youth team of Remo stars. He was only promoted to the main team of Remo after virraggio competition in 2022. So his Nigeria professional football career started in 2022.
Beyond Limits players payed him a visit last week in an age grade match where they chanted his nickname.
Beyond Limits are currently in Italy prepping for the upcoming Viareggio cup.
SIMPLY INCREDIBLE.
Congrats Benzo!!!!
The sky is your starting point.
He’s a DM. We need to discover more AMs. This is just another Ndidi and Onyeka out there. Even the promising midfielder, Victor Eletu, in AC Milan is a DM. Why is it difficult for us to produce creative midfielders these days?
I’m happy for Akin and Victor though. And kudos to Kazeem Eletu FC and Beyond Limits of Kunle Soname. They seem to be the manufacturing companies of Nigerian best youth talents these days. Thanks to their massive investment in grassroot football. I even heard Remo Stars, the parent team of Beyond Limits, have their own stadium and female youth teams. Not forgetting FOSLA Academy in Abuja too. Is this not what the Nff Should be doing? Why are the proprietors of these clubs not vying for NFF chairmanship? There should be a complete overhaul of our grassroot football programme. The NFF are just paying lip service to this programme.
When last did Nigeria produce a world class u17 team? 10 years ago, I guess. And we don’t even seem to realize that the supply chain to top European teams have declined considerably in the last 6 years. The average age in the current Super Eagles is gradually shifting towards late 20s. And in the next 4 years, the current team may be too old to compete with no able replacement on ground to take over. I’m not sure the NFF has this foresight. They are waiting for Luton, Arsenal, Chelsea, AC Milan and Inter Milan to produce players for Nigeria to poach. It is well
He is not a DM. Check his stat 5 goals and 2 assist in 19 games should tell you otherwise.
A lot of DMs can chalk uo this impressive statistics. But I stand to be corrected on his natural position in that team. Anyone in the house with a better idea?
Even on inter Milan site, he was listed as an AM. Check his game today on YouTube he created a chance. I don’t know how a DM will play with so much confidence to play an advanced role. I was dribbling and moving the ball forward.
He’s not a DM
Definitely not a DM, montage of his debut will clearly indicate he is an attacking midfielder. However, news emanating from Portugal suggest that Peseiro may have found the missing piece in our midfield, an attacking midfielder in the name of sylvester jasper. He currently plays for Bulgaria u23 , his father is Nigerian and mother is Bulgarian. Peseiro is starting to win me over, making good moves.
Nff and Npfl just had the under 17 youth league. According to report, it was a big success. They will do more.
It’s a good move. But Nigeria is too big and the talent base so vast to restrict he discovery of players to just once-a-ywar NPFL U17 league.
Has anyone taken time to study the Freiburg model? There can be an adaptation of that programme here because it robbed off on the German national team, which led to their dominance in both male and female football. Germany winning the world cup in 2014 wasn’t by accident. It was a result of a carefully desinedg programme.
The Viareggio u17 Cup going on in Italy now has thrown up some fantastic teams from Nigerua. Three Nigerian Clubs, Ojodu FC, Mavlon FC and Beyond Limits qualified for the semis. Today, if I’m not mistaken, Beyond Limits will square up against a team from Congo in the final, while Ojodu and Mavlon will slug it out in the third place match. Now, the question is, how many NFF officials rom the technical department and developmental teams accompanied the youth clubs to that competition? How many players from that competition will make it to the Golden Eaglet and the Flying Eagles without tipping someone in Abuja to help him out?
Why are we not organizing competitions like this and invite other teams around the world to participate? Viareggio Cup has been ongoing for 75 years, but our own Shell Cup died after 20 years or so. When last did we have GTB Principal Cup? What about Channels TV primary school Cup? Coca Cola U18 Championship used to be a programme on NFF’s annual programme iys long gone now. Where is the Pepsi Academy that produced the likes of Chinedu Ogbuke and Mikel Obi?
It’s all about the Super Eagles and Super Falcoms now. No one cares about how the feeder teams of these senior outfits are being developed. These days, Nigeria age-grade teams gather 3 weeks to a major competition with players bringing letters from people at the top. We throw these galf-baked players into the heart of qualifying matches and when they perform abysmally, we blame the coaches and ill-prepared players.Those who succeed in the qualifying series get booted out of CAF and FIFA competitions at critical stages.
Where is that Nigeria football develient report submitted to Buhari last year? All we do is pay lip service to the growth of the game that has over the years united the country more than anything else in our national life.
That’s a very good one, I have suggested this before that we should have another grade league where scout from other countries can be attracted into how league and watch out, this is where you will see a lot of investment and development from home and abroad. May be we can also have players that can represent us better at chan.
It is good bcos we will see the talents very well and they can move a lot of developmental levels until they get to super eagles.
From this u17 league, we will have a lot of good players for different department in the nearest future. Super eagles shirt will be more competitive. I’m the most happy for this news
PaPaFem the solution is investment in grassroot development of football from our school system like it used to be in the past. Academy will not grow Nigerian football we need to create football competitions in our Primary, secondary and Tertiary institutions that will throw up all talents in the country. Even the United States develop all their sports through their school system. We cannot claim to love football yet we don’t do anything to develop it and it is the reason why we took a lopsided team to Ivory coast, imagine Ndidi who is an average player got injured and the whole country was freaking out. It is embarrassing
Under Peseiro this boy will only defend for 90mins and get burn out. Ebenezer is a central midfielder who has a box to box character in the mould of yaya toure with a special ability to influence a match. I look forward to seeing him debut under a proper coach in the SE.
Papafem. He’s more like a CAM, not like Ndidi or Onyeka. He’s more comfortable with the ball at his feet. In my opinion he’s more like a Mikel. You can hardly take the ball off him and he’s more creative. Nearly gave an assist for Arnautovic yesterday. From the little I saw of him yesterday he’s a future SuperEagles dominant midfielder. Hopefully, he can actualize his potentials.
Thanks bro. I didn’t even watch yesterday’s match. I was busy all through. But now i have a little idea about who he is and how he plays. I pray the coach gives him more game time. It will build his confidence and improve his skillset
Good that Ebenezer has been launched our . Hope NFF take him serious . I even wonder what of Michael Folorunsho, isn’t he an AM . I saw the goal he scored for Verona . That was incredible. Heard Spaletti is looking for him . Let’s make a move on him asap