How Anthony Nwakaeme is leading Trabzonspor’s unlikely Super Lig challenge

A glance at the Super Lig table would confuse the casual observer: Besiktas, last year’s champions, are sat 10 points off the top; Galatasaray and Fenerbahce, who respectively finished level and two points adrift in 2020/21 are equally outside the top four positions and struggling for consistency. 

Heading into gameweek 13 in Turkey, league leaders Trabzonspor are the only recognizable outfit in the European slots based on performances in previous seasons. 

Second-place Hatayspor continue to overachieve after finishing their debut campaign last term in sixth, Konyaspor in third ended 20/21 in mid-table, while fourth-place Alanyaspor were seventh at the end of the previous season. 

Even though nobody could have foreseen Trabzonspor’s start to the season — they remain unbeaten heading into Monday’s clash with Gaziantep having played a third of their 38 games — their steady improvement in recent campaigns suggest this current position is not all that surprising. 

Since the Black Sea Storm’s 12th-place finish in 2015/16, the Trabzon outfit have ended sixth, fifth, fourth, second and fourth in subsequent campaigns, strikingly missing the opportunity to claim a first title since 1984 in 2019/20 when they were only four points shy of Istanbul Basaksehir. 

That campaign rankled due to a late-season wobble in which Trabzonspor failed to win three of their final five fixtures. The preceding year, they could not make the most of an outside chance of claiming the title, ending that season six points adrift of eventual winners Galatasaray. 

Anthony Nwakaeme has witnessed the club’s recent ambition to upset the applecart, and he has by no means been a bystander. 

The former Hapoel Be'er Sheva attacker has been one of the side’s consistent characters since switching from the Israeli club in the summer of 2018, notably contributing 18 goals in his debut 2018/19 season, before following that up with 17 goal involvements the following year. 

Maintaining a baseline consistency despite the revolving managerial door at the club is admirable and it is to the inside forward’s credit he has broadly remained a key figure despite playing under four head coaches already in three years in Turkey. By his lofty standards, last season’s 12 goals plus assists was an anomaly and the first time since 2014/15 he failed to hit double figures in goals—seven goals in both seasons. 

Having netted five already in 11 games this term, the forward is on pace to outdo the previous season’s numbers and a trio of assists—a joint-high—takes him only four goal contributions behind last year’s return. 

Only Anastasios Bakasetas (seven) has notched more goals than the Nigerian, although this comes with a caveat of the Greece international being on penalty-taking duty. He has scored three of his seven from 12 yards, whereas all of Nwakaeme’s have been from open play. 

The 32-year-old’s 19 percent goal conversion is so far outdoing previous campaigns with Trabzonspor, edging his maiden year in Trebizond (16%) and this term’s scoring frequency — a goal every 172 minutes — ranks highest in comparison to previous seasons. 

Indeed, the importance of his goals and assists should not be underplayed either. 

Nwakaeme has helped the league leaders claim 11 points already, notably netting the leveller in a 2-2 draw with Galatasaray in September (they came from 2-0 down), scoring a second-half winner in a 2-1 success over Caykur Rizespor and setting up Andreas Cornelius’ 96th-minute winner at Besiktas before the international break. 

Indeed, a 33 percent involvement in the team’s goals is exemplary and will be key for Abdullah Avci’s men chasing a first top flight title in 37 years. 

Trabzonspor have been the greatest beneficiaries of the habitual sides’ slump in 21/22 and, with Nwakaeme, Trabzonspor will hope to be third-time lucky in this ongoing chase after near Super Lig misses at the backend of the last decade.

---

Seye Omidiora is a passionate football writer and pundit whose deep appreciation for the beautiful game exceeds the usual. He is currently a columnist for Goal Africa and has previously written for Vital Football UK, IBCity Info and Opera News.

-----

Pulse Contributors is an initiative to highlight diverse journalistic voices. Pulse Contributors do not represent the company Pulse and contribute on their own behalf