Super Eagles forward Henry Onyekuru has been named the Most Promising Player of the Year at the 2017 Soulier d’Or awards in Belgium.
The Soulier d’Or or Belgian Golden Shoe is an award given in Belgium at the beginning of each year to the best footballer of the Belgian First Division for the past year. The trophy is sponsored by the Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws.
Onyekuru who is currently recuperating from a knee injury he sustained in December won the award ahead of Mechelen’s Hassan Bandé and Landry Dimata.
The former Aspire Academy player polled 219 votes while Bande and Dimata recorded 162 and 128 votes respectively.
The Nigerian international, 20, was a revelation playing for KAS Eupen in the Belgian top flight before he was signed by Everton and loaned out to Anderlecht immediately last summer.
He scored 22 goals for Eupen last season and has added nine goals in 19 Belgian top flight appearances for Anderlecht until his injury.
Anderlecht also posted a congratulatory message via their Twitter handle to the forward on the award.
“Congratulations @henryconyekuru on winning the Promising Player of the Year award!”
Meanwhile, three other Nigerian players Uche Agbo (Standard Liege), Samuel Kalu (Gent) and Taiwo Awoniyi (Royal Excel Mouscron) were also named in shortlist for the most Promising Player of the Year at the 2017 Soulier d’Or awards.
Agbo finished 13th in the poll with 25 votes while Kalu and Awoniyi in 17th and 23rd position earned 17 and three votes respectively.
