{"id":198219,"date":"2026-04-21T15:22:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T15:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/198219\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T15:22:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T15:22:11","slug":"kelechi-iheanacho-back-in-nigeria-conversation-as-celtic-goals-earn-recall-endorsement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/198219\/","title":{"rendered":"Kelechi Iheanacho back in Nigeria conversation as Celtic goals earn recall endorsement"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\/ Add as preferred source on Google <\/a> <\/p>\n

Kelechi Iheanacho is peaking at the right time this season.<\/p>\n

After months on the sidelines at Celtic,<\/a> he is now the team\u2019s in-form attacker, with three goals in his last three games.<\/p>\n

Iheanacho\u2019s cameo against St Mirren<\/a> saw him score two extra-time goals, including an excellent left-footed finish for his second. As things look, he could be a main character for the rest of the season in Scottish football.<\/p>\n

His return to form has drawn attention in his homeland, too, where he hasn\u2019t been called up in over a year.<\/p>\n

Who gets your man of the match award for their semi-final display? <\/p>\n

Tell us why you voted for them \ud83d\udc40<\/p>\n

\"AnthonyPhoto by Ian MacNicol\/Getty Images Nigeria hero Mutiu Adepoju backs Celtic\u2019s Kelechi Iheanacho for Nigeria return<\/p>\n

Adepoju told FootyAfrica:<\/a> \u201cKelechi has always been a very good player and a good scorer who has done very well over the years.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, these past few years he has not been finding it easy and all that.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Celtic \u2018interested\u2019 in Moises Paniagua as clubs circle for Bolivian wonderkid<\/a><\/p>\n

\"KelechiPhoto by Ian MacNicol\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m happy that he is coming back and he is doing very well in Celtic. I just believe he will be able to sustain that and continue.<\/p>\n

\u201cExperience matters, and if he is doing very well and I believe if the handlers of the national team see and find him worthy, then he can still come back.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe he has that ability to come back to the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since making his international debut as a teenager, Iheanacho has scored 14 goals in 58 appearances for the Super Eagles.<\/p>\n

However, the last of these goals came in November 2023. Despite being the most populous country in Africa, Nigeria have failed to qualify for both the 2022 and 2026 World Cups.<\/a><\/p>\n

Iheanacho isn\u2019t short on competition in the striker position, either. Victor Osimhen is the team\u2019s star player, whilst Viktor Boniface, Akor Adams and Paul Onuachu are all playing at a high level.<\/p>\n

Not to mention, there\u2019s also a pair of ex-Rangers strikers in Umar Sadiq and Cyriel Dessers. <\/p>\n

Did you agree with some of our player ratings? \ud83e\udd37\u200d\u2642\ufe0f <\/p>\n

\"AnthonyCredit: Ian MacNicol\/Getty Images Martin O\u2019Neill\u2019s fitness doubt over Celtic\u2019s Kelechi Iheanacho<\/p>\n

Speaking about Iheanacho after Sunday\u2019s win, Martin O\u2019Neill<\/a> said of increasing his playing time: \u201cI couldn\u2019t disagree with that, yes. <\/p>\n

\u201cObviously he\u2019s had the few injury problems. I think I said to you that sometimes it he felt as if he started the games, he might not see the game through.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a couple like that at the moment. But yes, today his goals have been big for us, really big.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe says he is completely fit, and I\u2019m not completely sure! But he was brilliant. He took the goals magnificently. You can see why he\u2019s had a career.\u201d<\/p>\n

Join Our Newsletter<\/p>\n

Receive a digest of our best Celtic content each week direct to your mailbox<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Add as preferred source on Google Kelechi Iheanacho is peaking at the right time this season. After months…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":198220,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[20018,101413,101414,122],"class_list":{"0":"post-198219","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nigeria","8":"tag-celtic","9":"tag-kelechi-iheanacho","10":"tag-mutiu-adepoju","11":"tag-nigeria"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@africa\/116443384898535398","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}