Joseph Arumala moved a goal clear at the top of the NPFL scoring charts with his 12th of the season in Ikorodu City’s dominant 3-0 Matchday 34 victory over Kano Pillars in Lagos, opening up a one-goal lead on joint chasers Godwin Obaje and Chukwuemeka Obioma.
With four other players on 10 goals sitting just behind the leaders, the 2025/26 NPFL golden boot race is entering its final phase with no confirmed winner in sight. Joseph Arumala pushed himself to the front on Sunday, netting his 12th goal of the season in Ikorodu City’s convincing 3-0 win over Kano Pillars at the Mobolaji Johnson Arena in Onikan, Lagos. It was a goal that arrived in the 29th minute, finishing off a pass from Abayomi Ayodeji with the composure of a player who has been scoring consistently all season.
The win was comprehensive enough to have been settled well before the final whistle, with Ikorodu City showing the kind of attacking fluency that has made them one of the league’s more entertaining sides this season. For fans wanting to stake on the golden boot race in the final rounds, the Bet9ja’s YOHAIG welcome bonus is available for new users at bet9japromotioncode.com.ng.
The Golden Boot Table With Five Games Left
Arumala leads on 12 goals, one ahead of Rangers International’s Godwin Obaje and Abia Warriors striker Chukwuemeka Obioma, both on 11. Then come four players tied on 10: Victor Mbaoma of Remo Stars, Chidera Michael of Enyimba, Uche Collins of Katsina United and Daddy Abdulrahman of El Kanemi Warriors. The breadth of this chasing pack, spread across clubs from Port Harcourt to Katsina to Enugu, makes the final five rounds exceptionally unpredictable. Any of seven players could realistically end the season with the award. The title race is also still live, which means several of these high scorers will be playing in high-stakes matches where goals carry double significance. NPFL fans backing their clubs through the run-in can use the Bet9ja sign-up offer before the next matchday.
Arumala’s position at the top is a personal milestone for a player whose name became familiar to NPFL watchers relatively recently. A former Golden Eaglets player, he has transferred that youth level talent into consistent senior production for Ikorodu City, and a golden boot at the end of this campaign would represent a significant step in establishing him as one of the league’s genuine attacking threats rather than a promising prospect.
Context: The Previous Golden Boot Holders
Godwin Obaje, who sits one behind Arumala, won the NPFL golden boot in the 2016 season with 18 goals, demonstrating that this is a player who knows how to finish a campaign strongly. Chukwuemeka Obioma, the other chaser on 11, won the award in 2022/23. With five games left, the most decorated scorers in this three-horse race have both won the prize before, which raises the question of whether experience in a final-week golden boot push ultimately counts for something. NPFL fans following the race can check match updates and the full golden boot standings at FootballInNigeria.com.ng, where the Bet9ja’s current promo code is also available for new users.
📌 Did You Know?
- The Mobolaji Johnson Arena in Onikan, Lagos, where Ikorodu City played their home match against Kano Pillars, is one of the oldest football grounds in Nigeria and was originally built in the colonial era before being extensively renovated in subsequent decades.
- Joseph Arumala represented Nigeria at the Golden Eaglets level, the U-17 national team, before making his senior career in the NPFL, following a pathway taken by many of Nigeria’s most productive domestic league forwards over the past two decades.
- Godwin Obaje’s 2016 NPFL golden boot tally of 18 goals remains one of the highest single-season returns in the modern era of Nigerian domestic football, reflecting a prolific campaign that established him as one of the league’s most reliable scorers.
- Ikorodu City are a relatively recently promoted NPFL club from Lagos, their rise through the football pyramid serving as one of the more significant development stories in Nigerian club football over the past five years.
- El Kanemi Warriors, whose striker Daddy Abdulrahman sits on 10 goals, are based in Maiduguri and are one of the NPFL’s longest-serving clubs, having been part of the top-flight Nigerian football landscape for several decades despite the security challenges facing the northeast of the country.
- Victor Mbaoma, also on 10 goals for Remo Stars, is a player who has been consistently productive in the NPFL for several seasons and was previously linked with a move to a European club, reflecting his profile as one of the more closely watched domestic strikers.
- The NPFL 2025/26 golden boot race involving seven serious contenders with five games left is unusually open by recent historical standards, where the award has typically been settled earlier in the season by a player who had opened up a more commanding lead.
