Piroe scored 4 goals to Leeds promotion back to EPL. He is EFL top scorer. Piroe and Emegha should be top choices.
152217 The Nigerian Football Association is trying to convince Emanuel Emegha of an international switch. The 22-year-old striker is seen in Nigeria as a promising candidate to succeed star attacker Victor Osimhen in the long term. Emegha has been discussed within the staff of the Dutch national team, but apart from a visit from assistant coach Erwin Koeman – who was present at the league match between Strasbourg and Stade Brest in February – he only has contact with Jong Oranje national coach Michael Reiziger. The Nigerian federation hopes to take advantage of this and persuade Emegha to play for the Super Eagles in the future.
It is a bit weird and sad that until the mid 2000s we had many CL and UEFA Cup topscorers but later on not any more. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_UEFA_Champions_League_top_scorers#By_country https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_UEFA_Cup_and_Europa_League_top_scorers#By_country https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_UEFA_Cup_Winners'_Cup_top_scorers#By_country In each one top three, basically. https://football-ratings.blogspot.com/2024/08/topscorers-per-nation-in-international.html?m=1 (Netherlands has 7 there, which is correct, and it doesn't include a single one from Olympic Games, Conference League or Nations League - so without this it will move up)
Maybe the play is so open at underage levels and later that it isn't conducive to creating attacking talents but is good for defensive prospects.
Although Netherlands has no player with more than 14 (non-penalty) goals in a top five league, how does it stack up collectively? Goals this season by 'non-Big Five' players scored in the Big Five leagues Brazil - 193 goals (includes 17 penalty goals) Argentina - 151 goals (14 pk) Netherlands - 137 goals (8 pk) Belgium - 109 (4 pk) Portugal - 102 (11 pk) Denmark - 94 (5 pk) Morocco - 55 (4 pk) Switzerland - 47 goals (6 pk) Austria - 42 (3 pk) Croatia - 42 (6 pk) ------- https://fbref.com/en/comps/Big5/nations/Big-5-European-Leagues-Nationalities https://fbref.com/en/comps/Big5/stats/players/Big-5-European-Leagues-Stats To be continued
Extended to the 25 nationalities with the most minutes. Senegal - 90 (10 pk) Nigeria - 82 (5 pk) Sweden - 80 (5 pk) Norway - 69 (4 pk) Ivory Coast - 53 goals (0 pk) Poland - 38 (7 pk) Serbia - 35 (7 pk) United States - 33 (3 pk) Mali - 23 (2 pk) Ireland - 14 (0 pk) Senegal is interesting because it has only 18.1 million inhabitants, almost the same as us (with a much younger population of course). With Sadio Mane of course no longer playing in Europe. Bonus: England - 376 goals (34 pk)
There is clearly a problem to develop a high volume goalscorer but as a whole 'we' are with Argentina 2nd behind Brazil (roughly) in terms of goalscoring in Top Five leagues.
With the Europa League finished, here the same, by nationalities in total (will do the same after the CL final is played). Only the top 25 in playing minutes displayed. Spain - 48 (5 pk) Netherlands - 38 (6 pk) Denmark - 30 (3 pk) France - 28 (1 pk) Czech Republic - 27 (0 pk) Portugal - 23 (6 pk) England - 22 (2 pk) Norway - 22 (1 pk) Argentina - 21 (1 pk) Morocco - 19 (0 pk) Belgium - 18 (0 pk) Ghana - 16 (2 pk) Brazil - 14 (3 pk) Nigeria - 13 (1 pk) Romania - 13 (0 pk) Sweden - 13 (0 pk) Turkey - 13 (0 pk) Germany - 9 (0 pk) Italy - 9 (1 pk) Ukraine - 9 (1 pk) Senegal - 8 (0 pk) Israel - 7 (1 pk) Croatia - 6 (0 pk) Serbia - 4 (1 pk) Greece - 2 (0 pk) https://fbref.com/en/comps/19/nations/Europa-League-Nationalities https://fbref.com/en/comps/19/stats/Europa-League-Stats
Serie A is finished now (#2 in the coefficients). Our countrymen scored 36 goals there, without a penalty. In 2023-24 this was 42 goals, with 5 penalties. This was with Zirkzee playing in the league and Koopmeiners prolific for Atalanta (now at Juventus less prolific and also different roles and set-up). Argentina produced 2023-24 a high 91 goals (with 20 penalty goals); Brazil 30 goals (3 penalties) 2024-25 Serie A goals by foreign nationality (top 25 in minutes played) Argentina - 75 goals (7 penalties) France - 69 (4 pk) Netherlands - 36 (0 pk) Belgium - 34 (3 pk) Scotland - 32 (1 pk) Spain - 27 (2 pk) Denmark - 26 (2 pk) Brazil - 20 (3 pk) United States - 20 (3 pk) Portugal - 19 (0 pk) Serbia - 19 (5 pk) Switzerland - 14 (2 pk) Sweden - 12 (1 pk) Croatia - 11 (2 pk) Germany - 10 (0 pk) Colombia - 9 (0 pk) Cameroon - 8 (0 pk) England - 8 (1 pk) Romania - 8 (2 pk) Poland - 5 (2 pk) Ivory Coast - 4 (0 pk) Albania - 4 (2 pk) Slovakia - 2 (0 pk) Morocco - 2 (0 pk)
Germany and France are of course also finished, two other top five leagues (although one can argue Ligue 1 sits clearly below the other 4). This also helps to calculate a 'top four leagues' at the very end. Bundesliga goals by foreign nationality (top 25 in minutes played) France - 75 goals (2 pk) England - 40 (9 pk) Austria - 37 (3 pk) Denmark - 37 (2 pk) Czech Republic - 33 (1 pk) Netherlands - 32 (1 pk) Japan - 27 (2 pk) Bosnia & H. - 23 (0 pk) Belgium - 16 (0 pk) Slovenia - 16 (2 pk) Croatia - 16 (4 pk) Sweden - 15 (0 pk) Nigeria - 14 (2 pk) Portugal - 13 (0 pk) Algeria - 12 (2 pk) South Korea - 12 (0 pk) Slovakia - 9 (0 pk) Serbia - 8 (1 pk) Switzerland - 7 (0 pk) Hungary - 7 (0 pk) Brazil - 6 (0 pk) Norway - 6 (2 pk) Greece - 5 (0 pk) United States - 2 (0 pk) * Harry Kane scored on his own 9 penalties... Ligue 1 goals by foreign nationality (top 25 in minutes played) Ivory Coast - 37 (0 pk) England - 34 (8 pk) Brazil - 33 (3 pk) Algeria - 31 (4 pk) Morocco - 30 (3 pk) Senegal - 30 (4 pk) Japan - 25 (0 pk) Portugal - 24 (4 pk) Belgium - 23 (0 pk) Netherlands - 23 (1 pk) Canada - 20 (6 pk) Switzerland - 19 (4 pk) Denmark - 18 (1 pk) Nigeria - 16 (4 pk) Guinea - 14 (8 pk) Mali - 14 (2 pk) Ghana - 12 (0 pk) Norway - 10 (0 pk) Spain - 9 (0 pk) Cameroon - 7 (0 pk) United States - 7 (0 pk) Argentina - 4 (0 pk) Poland - 4 (2 pk) Serbia - 0 goals
When you exclude penalties Emegha finished 2nd in the Ligue 1 goalscorer list. Behind Dembele of PSG. Emegha should be called up for Oranje soon.
Forget it. Brobbey will be sold to an epl club and will be sected by Koeman, because he plays in a better/more competitive league. The fact that Brobbey scored less than a substitute striker at Ajax (Weghorst) with more goals insubstantially less minutes, and scored about 1/6th of the actual topscorer of the Eredivisie, and less goals than Emegha and he still got preference over those two is a prediction of what Cowbrain will do next season.
Final table Goals this season by 'non-Big Five' players scored in the Big Five leagues Brazil - 194 (17 pk) Argentina - 154 (15 pk) Netherlands - 138 (8 pk) Belgium - 112 (4 pk) Portugal - 105 (11 pk) Denmark - 96 (7 pk) Senegal - 93 (10 pk) Nigeria - 82 (5 pk) Sweden - 82 (5 pk) Norway - 75 (5 pk) Japan - 70 (2 pk) Croatia - 64 (14 pk) Ivory Coast - 57 (0 pk) Morocco - 55 (4 pk) Ghana - 53 (1 pk) Switzerland - 48 (6 pk) Cameroon - 45 (5 pk) Austria - 42 (3 pk) Poland - 40 (7 pk) Serbia - 35 (7 pk) * The sudden bump for Croatia is because of some flag changes at fbref. N.B. USA 33 goals (3 pk), Uruguay 45 goals (6 pk) Premier League goals by foreign nationality (top 25 in minutes played) Brazil - 84 (7 pk) Norway - 39 (4 pk) Sweden - 39 (4 pk) Netherlands - 38 (6 pk) Egypt - 37 (9 pk) Portugal - 35 (3 pk) France - 34 (3 pk) Senegal - 30 (2 pk) Ghana - 28 (1 pk) Argentina - 27 (0 pk) Spain - 27 (0 pk) Germany - 26 (0 pk) Colombia - 25 (0 pk) Belgium - 23 (0 pk) Cameroon - 23 (5 pk) Wales - 22 (0 pk) Nigeria - 20 (0 pk) Denmark - 15 (2 pk) Ireland - 14 (0 pk) Scotland - 10 (0 pk) Italy - 9 (0 pk) Poland - 4 (0 pk) United States - 1 (0 pk) Ukraine - 1 (0 pk) N.B. Uruguay 8 goals (0 pk) --------------- To be returned when the Champions League is finished... there is some margin for improvement (I'd say that every corner of the country needs to have a good academy, with AZ and Twente as examples).
Tough luck for the injured Emegha. He would have been a strong contender to start for both Oranje and Oranje U21.