Rivers United are top. Rangers are two points behind with a game less played. Ten matchdays remain. And a former Super Eagles goalkeeper who still watches every home game from the stands in Enugu says the Coal City Flying Antelopes can do it.
The 2025/2026 NPFL title race has been building to this moment for weeks. With a third of the season left to play, Rivers United sit at the top of the table with 49 points and two games in hand. Right behind them, separated by two points and watching every result from Port Harcourt with growing focus, are Rangers International on 47 points. The Coal City Flying Antelopes haven’t won the league since 2016. Their last title was their eighth. A ninth would put them level in the all-time record books with nobody except Enyimba.
Former Super Eagles goalkeeper Chigozie Agbim, speaking exclusively to FootballInNigeria.com.ng on Thursday, believes this is the year Rangers close that gap.
NPFL 2025/26 — Top of the Table (March 5, 2026)
| Pos | Club | Pts | GD | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rivers United | 49 | + | 2 games in hand |
| 2 | Rangers International | 47 | + | 10 games to play |
— Chigozie Agbim, former Super Eagles goalkeeper and Rangers International fan
Agbim knows this club from the inside. He came through as a goalkeeper in Enugu’s football ecosystem and has never stopped following the Flying Antelopes. He attends home games at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium, sits in the stands like any other supporter, and watches the team with the kind of informed affection that goes beyond nostalgia. When he says Rangers are playing the game of their lives, it’s not the wishful thinking of a distant fan. It’s a reading from someone watching it unfold in person.
The Ilechukwu Effect
Agbim is clear about what triggered Rangers’ second-half surge. Fidelis Ilechukwu, who has built a reputation as one of Nigeria’s most tactically sharp domestic coaches, spent part of the first stanza away on national duty with the Super Eagles. His assistant, Ekeh Kenechukwu, managed the team competently during that period and kept points on the board. But since Ilechukwu’s full return to Enugu, the Flying Antelopes have looked like a different animal.
— Chigozie Agbim
Ilechukwu’s return coinciding with a Rangers run of form isn’t a coincidence. He’s a details coach who watches opposition footage obsessively and adjusts his setup game by game. The NPFL’s compressed fixture schedule in the second stanza rewards exactly that kind of preparation. Teams that rotate intelligently and maintain tactical discipline across a short, intense run of games pull clear. Rangers have been doing precisely that.
Thirty Points Left — Anything Can Happen
Agbim’s broader point about the NPFL table is worth sitting with. The gap between Rivers United and the next cluster of clubs isn’t wide. The points difference throughout the top half of the table is narrow enough that a three-match losing run for the leader creates a completely different picture. Thirty points are still available. That’s a full third of the points total some NPFL champions have finished the season with.
Rivers United, managed by Finidi George, are not going to collapse. They’re a well-organised, physically strong unit, and Finidi has proven his management credentials in his first season overseeing a league campaign. But Rangers at home at Nnamdi Azikiwe, with Ilechukwu’s pressing structure and a crowd that has been growing in intensity all season, is not a fixture any team in the NPFL wants with the title on the line.
— Chigozie Agbim
Agbim’s words carry weight precisely because he’s not posturing for a press conference. He drives to Nnamdi Azikiwe, he buys his own ticket, and he watches from the terraces. That’s the Enugu football culture talking — a city that has produced some of Nigeria’s most passionate domestic football support and still turns up for the Flying Antelopes week after week, regardless of the table position.
Analysis: Can Rangers Actually Win This?
The mathematics are favourable. Rivers United’s two games in hand are not necessarily an advantage when those games need to be won under increasing pressure from a Rangers side matching them result for result. Every point Rivers United drops, Rangers can capitalise on immediately. In football terms, a two-game-in-hand advantage is a sword that cuts both ways. If Rivers United win both, the gap widens, and Rangers need a run of form that’s almost impossible to maintain. If Rivers United draws even one, Rangers can go level or above with a win of their own.
Ilechukwu’s tactical intelligence is the differentiator. He showed last season that he can prepare his team specifically for high-pressure games and get results against sides with superior individual quality. Rangers’ squad depth may be marginally below Rivers United’s, but Ilechukwu’s ability to squeeze maximum performance from his group in a short final stretch of games gives them a realistic shot. If Enugu stays loud, if Rangers’ key attackers stay fit, and if Ilechukwu finds the right shape for each remaining fixture, a ninth title is genuinely within reach.
For Nigerian football neutrals, this is exactly what the NPFL needs — a genuine title race with two credible contenders, a narrative hook (Rangers’ 10-year title drought), and a charismatic former player publicly backing the underdog. This season deserves a proper finish.
Ten games. Thirty points. One title. Both clubs can still win it, and that’s what makes this NPFL season worth watching. Follow every Rangers and Rivers United fixture with coverage at FootballInNigeria.com.ng, and if you’re looking to track the title race with skin in the game, Bet9ja’s 170% accumulator boost is designed for exactly this kind of multi-matchday NPFL run-in.
📌 Did You Know?
- Rangers International won their eight NPFL titles in 1974, 1975, 1980, 1984, 2010, 2011, 2013, and 2016. Their most recent championship came under coach Imama Amapakabo, whose structured defensive system guided the Flying Antelopes to the title with the best defensive record in that season’s league.
- Chigozie Agbim, who played for Rangers International among other clubs during his career, earned two Super Eagles caps and was part of Nigeria’s goalkeeping pool during the early 2010s, a period when Enyeama was the undisputed number one and competition for the backup role was fierce. Agbim turned 41 in 2025.
- Fidelis Ilechukwu previously managed Heartland FC of Owerri and built a reputation for organising defensive structures and exploiting set-pieces, which became a Rangers trademark under his management. His dual role serving both the Super Eagles (as an assistant during a transitional period) and Rangers in the same season was one of the more unusual arrangements in recent NPFL history.
- Rivers United, under Finidi George in 2025/26, are pursuing their second NPFL title. Their first came in the 2021/22 season under Stanley Eguma, who guided the club from Port Harcourt to the championship with an efficient, physical style built around strong defensive organisation and quick transitions.
- The Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium in Enugu, Rangers’ home ground, has a certified capacity of approximately 22,000. On big match days in the NPFL, the atmosphere has historically been among the loudest in Nigerian domestic football, with supporters organising coordinated chants from the iconic “Ogboko” section of the terrace that Rangers fans have occupied for decades.
- Enyimba of Aba are the only Nigerian club to have won more NPFL titles than Rangers International. Enyimba have won nine, which is exactly the number Rangers are chasing in 2025/26. If Rangers win the title this season, they would share second place in Nigeria’s all-time league champions list with nobody, having drawn level with Enyimba’s nine.
- The NPFL’s second stanza format, introduced to give the league a fresh narrative midpoint, has historically suited chasing teams more than leaders. Of the last five NPFL seasons in which the second stanza began with a different club at the top than the eventual champion, four ended with the second-stanza leader failing to hold on. Rangers know the format can work in their favour.
