Kelechi Iheanacho scored twice and set up a third as Bursaspor won 3-0 at Muğlaspor on Thursday, 15 October, in week 10 of the TFF First League. The brace means he has now scored in ten consecutive league matches, a run that Turkish outlets including A Haber say goes past the nine-match streaks of Metin Oktay and Saffet Sancaklı.
Fourteen goals. Ten games.
How the game at Muğla turned
The first half at the Muğla Atatürk Stadium finished goalless. Early in the second, Iheanacho thought he had broken through. VAR ruled it out for offside. He did not have to wait long. On 58 minutes Halil Akbunar's attempt was turned towards goal and Iheanacho tapped in from close range, according to the fan site Bursasporx. His second, on 79 minutes, came from a solo run finished from the edge of the box.
Then he turned provider. Four minutes later he slipped the ball to substitute Hüseyin Maldar, who beat a defender and made it 3-0. Iheanacho went off a minute after that.
Fanatik counted two goals and one assist for him on the night, and put his season return at 14 goals and three assists in ten league appearances, which is a direct hand in 17 of the 20 league goals Bursaspor have scored.
When we last looked at his run, after the 2-1 home defeat by Mardin 1969 Spor, the count stood at nine games and 12 goals.
The record talk in Turkey
The streak is now a story of its own. A Haber reported that the Mardin goal had already taken Iheanacho past Fernandao's Bursaspor club mark of eight successive scoring games, set in 2014-15. Thursday's brace took him beyond Metin Oktay, who scored in nine straight Süper Lig games for Galatasaray in 1962-63. Saffet Sancaklı did the same for Kocaelispor in 1995-96.
There is a caveat. Oktay and Sancaklı did it in the top flight, while Iheanacho is doing it in the second tier, a point the Turkish reports have mostly passed over. Alanya Postası still ran a headline saying he had broken a record in Turkish football.
Mustafa Er has never hidden what the club signed him for. “We transferred Iheanacho so that he would score goals,” the head coach told DHA on 9 October. The striker set out his own aim after arriving from Celtic in the summer.
“My target is for us to go to the Super Lig.”
Promotion race and the Super Eagles
The win lifted Bursaspor to second on 22 points, an automatic promotion place. They are two clear of Iğdır FK and three behind leaders Kayserispor, according to Habertürk and Bold Sports. Pendikspor visit Bursa on Monday.
For Nigeria, the timing matters. Iheanacho also scored in the 3-3 friendly draw with Russia on 6 October, so his run across club and country now stands at eleven matches, and the Super Eagles face Tanzania twice in November in a qualifying group where only one ticket to the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations is left beyond the co-hosts.
Whether he leads the line in those games is Eric Chelle's call. The coach has said nothing public about it yet.
The numbers are making the case for him.
This article was most recently revised and updated 19 seconds ago
