Victor Osimhen: Can Super Eagles main man lead Nigeria to 2030 FIFA World Cup?

For the second time in a row, Nigeria are sitting out the World Cup and this time, watching from the sidelines has hit differently.

There's regret over how close they came, frustration at how it slipped away, and, increasingly, a shift in focus toward 2030 and whether the Super Eagles can avoid becoming Africa's answer to Italy's now-infamous pattern of qualification failures.

At the centre of that conversation is one name: Victor Osimhen.

The Galatasaray striker's immediate club future remains one of the more talked-about storylines in African football right now, but it's his international form that's driving the 2030 debate.

Osimhen missed five matches during the qualifying campaign yet still managed eight goals and an assist in just seven appearances - numbers that would headline most nations' qualifying campaigns. For Nigeria, though, they weren't enough.

The Super Eagles came up short against both South Africa and DR Congo in the playoff, and a golden individual campaign ended without the only outcome that mattered.

That contradiction, a talisman firing on all cylinders and a team still falling short, is exactly why fans are already looking four years down the line, with belief that Osimhen, at 27 now and set to be 31 by the next tournament, can be the one to finally get Nigeria over the line.

One popular take doing the rounds among fans pairs Osimhen with three younger forwards as the nucleus of Nigeria's 2030 push.

As the fan puts it: 'These 4 strikers, Victor Osimhen (27), Akor Adams (26), George Ilenikhena (19), Prosper Peter (18) will qualify this nation to the World Cup 2030. A mixture of ball carrying skills, finishing, aggressiveness, link up play and skilfulness.'

It's a tidy theory; depth up front, different profiles, a mix of experience and youth. But not everyone is convinced the problem is a shortage of strikers in the first place.

'Nigeria's problem is trying to play two or three strikers at a go,' one fan countered. 'You need creative players to supply these strikers.'

It's a fair point, and arguably the more uncomfortable one: Nigeria hasn't been short of finishers in recent years so much as they've been short of the midfield craft needed to consistently create chances for them.

Look closer at the three names meant to flank Osimhen, and the picture gets complicated fast.

George Ilenikhena, still only 19, was a name generating real excitement not long ago.

But his career has stalled since a move away from Monaco to Saudi Arabian side Al-Ittihad just four goals across his last two seasons combined for club level, and only ten in his last three seasons put together.

One fan didn't hold back on the assessment: 'George would [be] good before he moved to Monaco, now he moved to Saudi Arabia. Not good enough to get into the team.'

A move to a less competitive league at a formative age is rarely the platform a young striker needs to develop into a senior international spearhead.

Akor Adams presents a different kind of uncertainty. His numbers last season were genuinely strong; 14 goals for Sevilla, plus two goals and two assists for Nigeria at AFCON 2025, and two more in World Cup qualifying.

But he's now on his way out of Sevilla, reportedly bound for newly promoted Venezia in Serie A, a move that's raised eyebrows among Nigerian fans wondering whether it represents a step forward or sideways at a crucial stage of his career.

One fan was blunt about what it means if he's still relied upon as a first-choice option come 2030: 'If we still have Akor Adams as one of our best strikers by 2030 then we better bottle the qualification rounds.'

The most encouraging name of the three might be the least heralded. Prosper Peter, just 18 and playing his football at Ligue 1 side Angers.

Peter enjoyed a genuine breakout campaign last season with five goals, modest by senior standards, but a promising marker for a teenager cutting his teeth in one of Europe's top five leagues.

Osimhen's numbers already prove he can carry a Nigerian attack largely on his own, the issue has never really been whether he's good enough.

It's whether the team around him, under new head coach Eric Chelle, can be rebuilt to actually finish the job that qualification campaigns keep threatening to hand them.

If the fan pushing back on the "four strikers" theory is right, the real work between now and 2030 won't happen up front at all.

It'll happen in midfield, where Nigeria need to find players capable of consistently supplying a striker who has already shown, time and again, that he'll finish the chances if they come.

Osimhen leading Nigeria to 2030 isn't really in question. Whether Nigeria builds a team capable of getting him there is the one that actually matters.