Abubeker Nasir – remember the name, or certainly look out for him anyway.
The 21-year old Ethiopian international has lit up domestic football in his homeland scoring a record 29 goals in 23 games and is tipped to shine at this winter’s African Cup of Nations – he currently has three goals and three assists for his country in 13 caps.
🇪🇹 Abubeker Nasir is one of the continent’s most exciting young talents. The 21 y/o Ethiopian has stood out throughout the Qatar World Cup qualifiers and will be one to watch in the upcoming AFCON. @ZALwazi1 takes a look at what makes the young forward such a prolific goalscorer pic.twitter.com/cxG7JNeUX2
— af•recon (@af_recon) November 23, 2021
He is exactly the type of player that, if it is possible, we should be looking at to fit our player trading model, at the moment he probably wouldn’t cost anymore than we have paid for academy prospects Juan Alegria and Charlie McCann.
FT
Zimbabwe 🇿🇼 1-1 🇪🇹 Ethiopia #Ethiopia finished 3rd in group G of #FIFAWorldCupQualifiers👇an equaliser by #Abubeker_Nasir #Walias #CAF #AfricanFootball https://t.co/9q951YNjLf pic.twitter.com/eqaWcZnlkB
— Hana Gebresilassie 💚💛❤️ (@HanaGebres) November 14, 2021
We only have to look at our own Fashion Sakala to see that not every player who makes it joins an elite level academy from a young age and is fast tracked to stardom, some take the path less travelled and Nasir could be the latest player to come out of a continent known for producing incredibly talented individuals.
How about This ethiopian star Abubeker nasir 🌟🇪🇹 pic.twitter.com/eO7Ra8HDko
— Abdu (@abdu_hood) April 3, 2021
Samual Eto’o, Didier Drogba, Sadio Mane, Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang, just a few strikers from the not too distant past and present who have starred at the highest level, a successful AFCON could see Nasir join these illustrious names.
Coverage of Ethiopian football isn’t exactly easy to get a hold of but the national team games are all televised and documented and their is the obligatory YouTube video, Nasir is quick, composed and knows where the goal is – he’s not the sort of player you would long balls at to hold up but would be a success running into space behind opposition defences.
He has been linked with a move to the South African Premiership and to Europe from his side Ethiopian Coffee and there is no reason why we shouldn’t be interested too, it’s a market that we haven’t utilised before but – for the right player – it’s one we should be keeping an eye on, and Nasir is the perfect example of this, the AFCON the perfect platform to seal a dream move to football’s bright lights, or Glasgow.