The chase to become the Super Eagles of Nigeria’s all-time leading scorer is the private obsession of every striker who pulls on the green and white.
Thirty-seven is the number that follows them into every camp, every qualifier and every tournament.
That crown of Super Eagles’ all-time leading goalscorer has remained with the late Rashidi Yekini since 1998.
While the three-time AFCON winners have made strikers with undeniable style, swagger, and substance, none have yet surpassed Rashidi Yekini’s legendary tally, though Victor Osimhen now sits just two goals shy of that historic record.
This is a look at the man at the summit and the names closest to him.
Who is Super Eagles’ all-time highest goal scorer?
Nigeria’s premier sports brand, the Super Eagles, has never lacked footballing talent and famously reached a global peak of 5th in the FIFA world rankings in 1994.
Footballers from the country have continued to forge their legacies across varying eras, tactical systems, and managerial reigns.
While fans today closely follow modern stars and leverage platforms like Freebetng for exclusive performance insights, the historical weight of Rashidi Yekini’s 37-goal record remains firm.
Averaging a remarkable 0.64 goals per game, Yekini’s haul of 37 goals in 58 appearances for Nigeria represents an elite return by any global standard.
Twenty-eight years on, the record still stands.
Top 5 Super Eagles Goal Scorers in History
1. Rashidi Yekini – 37 goals
Goals Father as he was fondly called, led the Super Eagles’ line from 1984 to 1998, winning the 1994 AFCON title in Tunisia and making appearances at both the 1994 and 1998 FIFA World Cups.
At Tunisia ’94, his movement was razor-sharp and his finishing was simply cold-blooded; those five goals didn’t just win Nigeria the gold, they were the emphatic statement that Naija had finally arrived as a true continental heavyweight.
In 14 years, he made 57 appearances and found the back of the net on 37 different occasions.
2. Victor Osimhen – 35 goals
Victor Osimhen isn’t just your regular Nigerian footballer; he is comfortably the country’s biggest football export of the 21st century.
From being crowned the 2023 CAF Player of the Year to crashing the Ballon d’Or top ten at 8th, not to mention those massive club titles, this is a man who hasn’t just met expectations; he has absolutely shattered them
It has been a remarkable journey to watch, seeing the 27-year-old transform from that shy teenager making his Super Eagles debut in 2017 to a man standing on the precipice of history.
With 35 goals in just 52 caps, he is now just two goals shy of equalling a record that has remained untouchable in Nigerian football for nearly thirty years.
It took him seven long games to finally open his account in that 2-2 draw against Ukraine back in 2019, but what we’ve seen in the 45 games since has been nothing short of a clinical explosion, leaving him now on the absolute cusp of matching Yekini’s legendary mark and rewriting the record books in his own image.
3. Segun Odegbami – 23 goals
They called him ‘Mathematical’, and make no mistake, the numbers absolutely backed up the moniker, as Segun Odegbami earned that legendary nickname with a calculated precision in front of goal that saw him rack up 23 goals in just 47 appearances during his late-70s and early-80s prime.
The 73-year-old was a one-club man, spending his whole career with Shooting Stars of Ibadan and leading them to the 1976 African Cup Winners’ Cup glory.
A few years later at AFCON 1980, under Otto Gloria, he was central to Nigeria’s first continental triumph.
His Golden Boot-winning tally of three goals finally propelled the Green Eagles (as the national team was known then) to that elusive first continental title on home soil in Lagos, ending years of painful near-misses.
Overall, he had forty-seven caps and scored twenty-three goals.
4. Yakubu Ayegbeni – 21 goals
He’ll forever be haunted by that famous miss against South Korea, but make no mistake, Yak’s numbers don’t lie.
Despite the memes, he was undoubtedly one of the most lethal strikers of his generation, and his career record still holds up against the very best the continent has ever produced.
The Julius Berger product was called up to don the famous green shirt on fifty-eight occasions, finding the back of the net twenty-one times
Yakubu broke into the side as a raw 17-year-old under Jo Bonfrère and went on to become a fixture for the Super Eagles across the 2002, 2004, 2008, and 2010 AFCONs, not to mention his famous campaign at the 2010 World Cup.
5. Ikechukwu Uche – 19 goals
Ikechukwu Uche was a different kind of player, a player who did much of his best work when the pressure of qualification was at its highest.
With nineteen goals in 46 appearances, he was the ultimate ‘insurance policy’ for the Super Eagles, delivering five goals in World Cup qualifying and another seven in the race for AFCON.
Much of his club story was written on Spanish territories, where he turned out for Getafe, Real Zaragoza, Villarreal, and Málaga, but his crowning moment undoubtedly came in 2013, when he stood as a key member of the squad that lifted the Africa Cup of Nations trophy.
Nineteen goals place him fifth on Nigeria’s all-time list.
