Panathinaikos needed one goal at Volos on Sunday 25 October, and Cyriel Dessers was the man who scored it. The 1-0 away win in the Greek Super League made it four straight games with a goal for the Nigeria striker. Three days earlier he had scored twice in a 5-1 win over Kairat Almaty in the Conference League. That was five goals in four games.
Eric Chelle will have noticed. His squad for Tanzania has not yet been named.
| Cyriel Dessers | At a glance |
|---|---|
| Club | Panathinaikos (Greece), signed on 1 September 2025 |
| Age | 31, born 8 December 1994 in Tongeren, Belgium |
| Season goals | 9 in 14 appearances, all competitions, to 26 October |
| Nigeria record | 11 caps |
| Last call-up | AFCON 2025 squad; stayed in Athens in September 2026 with Nigeria's agreement |
| Next Nigeria match | Nigeria v Tanzania, Uyo, pencilled in for 11 November |
| Next club match | AEK Athens, Super League, 1 November |
Five goals in four games
The run started on 15 October. Dessers scored in a 2-1 home win over Borac Banja Luka, again three days later as Asteras Tripolis were beaten 5-1, then twice in Kazakhstan and once more at Volos, where Fotmob shows he played the full 90 minutes for the first time in that sequence. Before it, he had managed 17 minutes off the bench in a 1-0 defeat at Olympiacos.
Afrik-Foot counted nine goals in 14 appearances across all competitions after Volos. Three came in the league. Six came in Europe, three in qualifying and three in the league phase, and that took his career Conference League tally to 13, level with Mikael Ishak of Lech Poznan as the competition's joint top scorer since group and league phases began. He has not been a guaranteed starter. Fotmob lists three starts in his seven league appearances.
There is also a small worry. On 28 October he was missing from the Panathinaikos squad for the Greek Cup game against Aris Thessaloniki. Afrik-Foot noted that the club had not confirmed any injury.
A Nigerian by choice
Born in Tongeren to a Belgian father and a Nigerian mother, Dessers chose Nigeria in December 2019 and made his debut against Tunisia on 13 October 2020, then joined Rangers from Cremonese in July 2023 before moving to Athens on a permanent deal reported at 3.5 million pounds. Selection has rarely been simple for him. Speaking to the Daily Record in 2023, while he was outside the squad, Dessers said:
The competition in Nigeria is absurd. If you look at the other strikers and the form that are in, I can understand that.
Then the luck ran out.
Chelle did pick him for AFCON 2025, but injury ended his involvement before he kicked a ball at the tournament, and Afrik-Foot reports that surgery followed in April. Soccernet recorded that he did not play a competitive match again until 11 August 2026. That night he came off the bench against CSKA Sofia and scored an extra-time winner in the Conference League.
Why September went ahead without him
When Chelle named his 24-man squad for Madagascar and Guinea-Bissau, Dessers was not on it. Soccernet, relaying the Greek outlet Sport24, reported on 25 September that the striker had personally asked the coach for permission to stay in Athens and keep building fitness after his return from injury, and that Nigeria agreed.
It was not a happy window. Nigeria beat Madagascar 2-1 in Uyo, then lost 3-0 in Guinea-Bissau four days later, and Soccernet's Group L table shows Guinea-Bissau on six points and Nigeria on three. Tanzania are already qualified as co-hosts, so the others are chasing a single automatic place.
Six points against Tanzania is the minimum.
The queue in front of him
Victor Osimhen remains the reference point. He scored twice in Galatasaray's 2-1 derby win over Fenerbahce on 26 October. Tolu Arokodare was in the September squad and won Ajax's game at Sparta Rotterdam the same weekend, scoring in first-half stoppage time for what ThisDay counted as his ninth goal of the season in all competitions.
Kelechi Iheanacho is the loudest claimant. He has 16 goals in 12 games for Bursaspor, who top the Turkish second tier. Akor Adams, now a permanent Venezia player after leaving Sevilla, scored the winner against Napoli on 17 October, while Terem Moffi joined Hamburg permanently from Nice in August. Afrik-Foot expects Chelle to take only four strikers, which means at least one of these men will be watching on television.
Someone misses out.
Our view
Dessers should be in the squad. Not as the man to lead the line, but as the fourth striker.
The case rests on three things that can be checked. His goals are coming in two competitions, home and away, and he has done much of his work off the bench, which is exactly the role a fourth striker plays when a qualifier needs changing in the last half hour. He also knows Chelle, who picked him for the last Nations Cup.
The doubts are real. He has had one serious injury in the past year. He also missed the Aris game without a public explanation, and Iheanacho's numbers in Turkey are hard to ignore even allowing for the level. If Dessers plays against AEK on 1 November and comes through it, the call should be straightforward. Arokodare offers height, Osimhen offers everything else, and Dessers offers a man in form when Nigeria cannot afford a slip in Uyo.
Nothing is official until Chelle publishes his list.
This article was most recently revised and updated 5 seconds ago
