Terem Moffi is one of the great revelations of the French Football Championship 2020-2021 (Ligue 1) with now 14 goals – including a hat trick against Bordeaux – in 28 Ligue 1 matches with FC Lorient. The 21-year-old striker has never worn the colors of Nigeria in an official match and played in Lithuania for two more seasons.
Terem Moffi will not succeed his countrymen and friend Victor Osimhen for the title of best African player in the French Championship (Ligue 1). Not because this 21-year-old former striker is not worth it Marc-Vivien Foé Prize. But the settler of FC Lorient was simply not eligible until 2021. The reason? The Calabar Indian has never used Nigeria’s colors in official competition [1]. Be it under 17, under 20, under 23 or in the A national team.
This anomaly should not last – Gernot Rohr, the coach of the Super Eagles, chose him in March – but illustrates the surprise that Terem Moffi represents for European and African football.
System B and Lithuania
This son of a lawyer could have known a straighter line if he had made himself known during a U17 World Cup won by the Osimhen Golden Eaglets. But coach Emmanuel Amunike had not taken him to Chile for the final phase of the tournament.
Year 2017, Terem moffi has found a new academy in the south of England to complete a football player training that is still very incomplete. It was there that he met a technician who then asked him to join Lithuania 2018.
Despite the low reputation of the Lithuanian league, the child did not hesitate. After a short period on Kauno Zalgiris, this long midfielder (188 cm) swept everything with Riteriai and scored 20 goals.
Effective against reputable clubs
Something to seduce Kortrijk, a more exclusive Belgian club, which has seen Africans such as the Algerian Adlène Guedioura and the Senegalese Cheikhou Kouyaté. Despite a Belgian championship 2019-2020 that was interrupted by Covid, Terem Moffi managed to attract Lorient’s attention.
Lorientais recruited him for 8 million euros, a high sum for such a young element and with such a bad CV. But since then, the person has largely justified this investment. The left hand is now 14 goals in 28 matches, of which 8 only in April. He has also done a specialty: scoring goals against famous clubs in Ligue 1. Three goals against Monaco, two against Marseille, one against PSG.
Against Bordeaux, Terem Moffi even crossed a new milestone with a hat-trick and a decisive 4-1 victory in the race to stay in Ligue 1. An achievement that further strengthened his reputation in France and elsewhere. But the number 13 makes you feel good in Brittany. “I’m having fun in Lorient and I want to stay here,” he told regional Ouest-France daily.
[1] Every player who has used the colors of an African national team and has not changed his sporting nationality in the meantime is entitled to the Marc-Vivien Foé Prize. You must also have played at least 20 matches in Ligue 1 at the time of pre-selection.
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