A major tournament like the Africa Cup of Nations produces standout players and even flops. In the making of the former, there are unassuming players who get the job done without taking the glory.
One of those unsung heroes at the 2023 AFCON is Nigeria defender, Semi Ajayi, who played the entire tournament without any buzz around him.
Prominently, the West Brom defender stood tall among his teammates as the only player to have played every minute of the Super Eagles seven matches, as they reached the final, no thanks to their painful 2-1 loss against hosts Ivory Coast in the final.
In total, he played 630 minutes.
Nigeria was seeking a fourth AFCON title in Ivory Coast and Ajayi, as well as his teammates, put in great shifts on the pitch and in training to follow the successes recorded in 1980, 1994 and 2013. In seven matches at the tournament, the Eagles ended all their games in regular time of 90 minutes except the semi-finals clash against South Africa, which they won 4-2 on penalties after extra-time ended 1-1.
Ajayi’s 630 minutes lead the pack as other players like Ola Aina, goalkeeper Stanley Nwabali and Victor Osimhen, who only missed few minutes during the competition also followed.
Aina comes in second with 622 minutes, missing only eight minutes during the first game against Equatorial Guinea, which ended 1-1. He was replaced by Bright Osayi-Samuel in the 82nd minute of that game.
After being substituted 10 minutes before the end of the crunchy 2-0 win over Cameroon in the round of 16, Nwabali is in third position, having featured for 620 minutes while the energetic Victor Osimhen, who was also substituted twice during the tournament, has 627 minutes.
Midfielder Frank Onyeka played 594 minutes, while Calvin Bassey, who didn’t get a start shirt until the second game against Ivory Coast, featured in all the minutes of the other games and has 548 minutes just as player of the tournament, William Troost-Ekong, who was rested for the last group game against Guinea-Bissau, played 540 minutes.
Despite his visible height, Ajayi has a diminutive figure in Nigeria’s defence, which kept four clean sheets at the AFCON.
Going forward, he posed a great threat in the air in dead ball situations and Cameroon almost paid for that during their round of 16 clash, but a VAR intervention saw what would have been his second goal for Nigeria ruled out.
His consistency, however, didn’t go unnoticed from the fans as well as.
“Underrated and he’s a top lad too,” Danny Yayo wrote.
“Keep it up. The consistency is commendable. More upgrades and strength,” Paul Hai added.
Another fan, Adebayo Ayodele, said, “The guy is a soldier. He and Onyeka are really doing a serious dirty job for that team. Only those who know football can relate. They are my personal persons and I cherish them so much.”
Nonso Kenneth stated, “I have said this several times, Ajayi deserves some credit, he was massive for the Super Eagles.”
At 30, it remains to be seen what the near future holds for Ajayi in the Eagles but having established himself, every other player coming into the heart of the team’s defence has him to compete with for a shirt, at least until he calls it quits with the national team.
For now, the England-born defender will focus on his club’s push for a Premier League return, having scored two goals and also contributed one assist for the Baggies in the Championship, before departing for the AFCON. They are currently fifth in the table with 52 points after 31 games.
