No doubt, Clinton Jephtha’s double strike will be the most talked about after Enyimba’s supreme 3-1 win at rivals Heartland over the weekend, but new boy Ifeanyi Ihemekwele surely made an instant impact in the game.
At 63 minutes when Heartland were leading 1-0 through Suraj Lawal’s goal 10 minutes earlier, Enyimba head coach Yemi Olanrewaju was forced to throw in Ihemekwele, Elijah Akanni and Ismail Sarki for Fatai Abdullahi, Alade Balogun and Joseph Atule. Ihemekwele needed just his first contact with the ball to make an impression. Two minutes into his introduction, the 20-year-old latched onto a pass, held the ball and then cut inside his marker before firing into the net.
Interestingly, Ihemekwele just may have shown the Enyimba selectors what he has in store when he scored twice in their 8-0 win over BurnaBoy Football Academy in a tune-up game three days prior to the Heartland match. Last season, Ihemekwele scored eight goals in 17 appearances for Ijebu United in the Nigeria National League (NNL) and his performance did not go unnoticed as he was close to moving to the Egyptian league before the deal broke down after the buying club could not meet Ijebu United’s valuation for the striker.
For Ihemekwele, his route to becoming a part of Enyimba’s playing personnel did not come easy. The People’s Elephant have never been known to recruit based on sentiment or preference to indigene. So, the striker began with playing for Aba grassroots sides, Bigi FC and Mojo FC, before moving to famous Lagos club, Stationery Stores FC. He would later join Ijebu United where he spent last season in the second tier and became their top scorer in the NNL.
However, Enyimba were actually not privy to Ihemekwele’s exploit until former Enyimba and Super Eagles defender Obinna Nwaneri had a kickabout with the lad during the off-season and immediately, he was recommended to the People’s Elephant as a man who could fill the void left by last season’s NPFL top scorer Chijioke Mbaoma.
As a boy, who grew up in the streets of Aba, the chance to pull on the blue colour of Enyimba and then scoring on his debut against an eternal rival is something that could be the beginning of great things at his childhood club.
“I am happy to be here,” Ihemekwele told Thatenyimbafan.com. “It’s not easy for you as a hometown boy to play for Enyimba. You need to move out and play outside for you to be seen. I am happy I got the chance and also took it.”
Ihemekwele is also in the squad heading out of Nigeria to face Burkina Faso’s Étoile Filante in the playoff of the CAF Confederation Cup. The nimble-footed striker, whose biggest strength are his holdup play and high press, will surely have plenty of games to stake a claim in Coach Olanrewaju’s team.
So watch out for that player who wears Enyimba’s number 31 jersey, he could well be that man to take up the role of centre forward in the Aba club’s push for a 10th league title.
