Nwankwo Simy is probably not a player whose name rings a bell for most football fans especially outside of Nigeria and those who don't support Crotone, but after his recent exploits, many more may be curious to find out a bit more about him.
Born as Simeon Tochukwu Nwankwo, but commonly known as Nwankwo Simy or just Simy, the 28-year-old lanky attacker currently plies his trade for the Squali, who are presently hoping to stay afloat in Serie A. He's been on their books since July 2016, where despite making 150 appearances so far for the club and scoring over 60 goals, he's unfortunately been the victim of some vile racial abuse on social media, with some disgusting individuals even going so far as to wish that his infant son would "die of pancreatic cancer".
Angered and disgusted by this kind of action, Crotone's mayor, Vincenzo Voce, responded by not only publicly slamming those who chose to attack the footballer and his family, but also by giving the player's young child honorary citizenship of the city last month.
Meanwhile, on the pitch, Simy is doing his part to try to help the Squali again try to pull off another great escape. They presently sit in 20th spot, and again will have to really battle to avoid the drop as they're nine points from 17th-placed Torino. With just one win from their last five games, and four victories overall, the odds don't look good in their favor.
One positive light, however, is Simy's impressive stats from the month of March. From March 3rd until this past weekend, on April 3rd, he netted eight of Crotone's 12 goals. And, in total, he's scored 11 times since the start of 2021. Keep this in mind: only Juventus star Cristiano Ronaldo, who has scored 12, has scored more league goals than Simy since 2021 rolled around.
But it's that March stat that especially stands out. Simy has actually scored more goals in the month of March than any striker. That's correct. In March, Cristiano Ronaldo, who's the front runner for this season's Capocannoniere scored five. Robert Lewandowski, who's on course to break Gerd Muller's record, netted seven. Over in La Liga, Lionel Messi, four. Karim Benzema, six. Back to Serie A, Fiorentina's young Serbian striker Dusan Vlahovic and Napoli's Lorenzo Insigne both scored four times. And his fellow Nigerian international Kelechi Iheanacho, over at Leicester City, found the back of the net five times during the same period.
And to cap things off, Simy scored five times in a row. That makes him only the third African player in Serie A history to achieve this after George Weah did so with AC Milan in 1996 and Keita Balde Diao with Lazio 21 years later in 2017.
