Simeon Tochukwu Nwankwo Simy to the rest of the world — scored 27 goals in 27 Saudi First Division games this season. On June 21, he is going back to where it all started: Nkpor-Agu, Anambra State, for a day of thanksgiving, football and homecoming that the community has been building towards for weeks.
Not every footballer gets to go home as a goal king. Simy Nwankwo is making the trip to Nkpor-Agu in Idemili North Local Government Area of Anambra State this Saturday carrying the Saudi First Division’s joint top scorer award in his pocket, and bringing with him a roster of guests that would not look out of place at an NFF event. The occasion is called “The Homecoming”, and it is exactly what it sounds like a celebration of a career that began on the streets of this Anambra town and has taken a 6ft 6in striker from Portuguese second tier football to the FIFA World Cup to the Saudi Arabian desert and back again.
The event on June 21 will begin at 8:30 a.m. with a Thanksgiving Mass at Holy Cross Parish, Nkpor-Agu, before transitioning to an all-star novelty football match at 4 p.m. at the United Primary School football field, the kind of pitch where most young Nkpor footballers first began to dream about what Simy has actually achieved. Fans following Simy’s career and interested in the Saudi Pro League and First Division can check the Bet9ja promo code for enhanced odds on Saudi Arabian football markets ahead of the new season.
Twenty-Seven Goals in Twenty-Seven Games
The numbers from Simy’s 2025/26 Saudi First Division campaign with Al-Orobah are extraordinary by any standard. He scored 27 league goals and contributed four assists across 27 appearances, finishing as the joint top scorer in the division and cementing his status as one of the most reliable and prolific strikers in Saudi Arabia’s second tier. Al-Orobah, based in Sakakah in the Jouf region of northern Saudi Arabia, rode those goals to a fifth place finish in the regular season and a place in the Saudi First Division promotion play-offs.
Simy scored in the play-off semi-final against Al-Ula too, but the one goal was not enough, Al-Orobah went down 2-1 and their promotion dream ended for another season. The bittersweet ending does not diminish what he produced across the campaign a goal every game across the league phase is the kind of return that very few strikers in professional football anywhere in the world can match. At 33, Simy is still producing at a rate that would have seemed remarkable even in his prime Serie B years. Saudi football fans and Nigerians following his exploits can get started with the Bet9ja YOHAIG welcome code for new account holders before the next Saudi season kicks off.
The Guest List
The novelty match has attracted some notable names. Former Super Eagles midfielder Ogenyi Onazi, who earlier this week spoke about his own best World Cup memory against France in 2014 , will be on the pitch at the United Primary School field. Uche Nwofor, another former Nigerian international forward who had spells in Germany and the Netherlands, is also expected to participate. The professional representation does not stop there, Chukwubuikem Ikwuemesi of Belgian club Oud-Heverlee Leuven, David Nworah of Saudi Arabian side Al-Sinaa SC, and Francis Ezeh of Turkish First Division club Ankara Keçiörengücü are also confirmed to take part.
The combination of retired Nigerian internationals and active professionals sharing a pitch at a community school ground in Anambra State for a former teammate’s homecoming captures something genuine about Nigerian football culture that the game’s administrators would do well to study more carefully. These events matter. They produce photographs and memories that connect communities to the professional game in ways that formal outreach programmes rarely achieve. Fans in Anambra and beyond who want to back Nigerian players competing in overseas leagues this season can register with the Bet9ja platform ahead of the European and Saudi seasons restarting in August.
From Nkpor to the World Cup
The backstory behind “The Homecoming” is worth telling in full, because Simy’s career is one of the more improbable journeys in Nigerian football over the past decade. He began at home in Nkpor before earning moves to Portuguese clubs Portimonense and Gil Vicente, where his physical presence and goal threat in training eventually convinced Italian scouts to take a chance on him in the lower divisions of Serie A. The Italian chapter was the making of him. He scored goals for Crotone, Salernitana, Parma, and Benevento across several seasons, but the defining moment came during the 2019/20 Serie B campaign when he netted 20 goals for Crotone to become the first African player to finish as the outright leading scorer in an Italian professional league division. It was a landmark that the Italian football press took note of and that permanently changed the conversation about what Simy Nwankwo was capable of.
The Super Eagles came calling, and in 2018 he was part of Nigeria’s squad at the FIFA World Cup in Russia, featuring in group-stage matches against Croatia and Argentina as the Super Eagles made it out of their group before falling to Argentina in a match that ended 2-1. He has been a consistent presence in the national team conversation ever since, though the Super Eagles’ painful absence from the 2026 World Cup means there is no tournament this summer for players like Simy to measure themselves against at the international level. The homecoming to Nkpor, in that context, is both a celebration of what his career has been and a reminder of the community that has followed every step of the journey from Portuguese football to Serie B to Riyadh to Sakakah and back to Anambra State.
What Comes Next
Simy has not confirmed his club plans for the 2026/27 season. Al-Orobah’s play off exit means they remain in the Saudi First Division, and whether the 33 year old stays or moves on to a different challenge in Saudi Arabia or elsewhere will likely be answered in the coming weeks. At his age and with his goal return this season, there will be no shortage of interested clubs. What “The Homecoming” signals, more than anything, is a man at peace with what he has achieved and committed to sharing it with the people who shaped who he is. The Thanksgiving Mass at Holy Cross Parish at 8:30 a.m. is the first note in that story. The novelty match at the primary school pitch at 4 p.m. is the rest of it.
📌 Did You Know?
- Simy Nwankwo became the first African player in history to finish as the outright leading scorer in an Italian professional league division when he netted 20 goals for Crotone in the 2019/20 Serie B season a record that has not been matched since.
- He stands at 6ft 6in (approximately 198cm), making him one of the tallest outfield players in Nigerian football history and a uniquely physical presence as a centre forward in any league he has played in.
- Simy represented Nigeria at the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, featuring in group stage matches against Croatia and Argentina as the Super Eagles reached the knockout rounds before exiting to Argentina in the Round of 16.
- He scored 27 goals in 27 Saudi First Division league appearances for Al-Orobah in the 2025/26 season, finishing as joint top scorer in the division — a remarkable return that works out to exactly one goal per game across the full league campaign.
- Al-Orobah are based in Sakakah, the capital of the Jouf region in the far north of Saudi Arabia one of the more remote locations in the Saudi football pyramid and far from the major population centres where the Pro League’s biggest clubs are based.
- Ogenyi Onazi, one of the guests expected at the novelty match in Nkpor-Agu, shared the Nigerian national team dressing room with Simy at the 2018 World Cup in Russia and at various AFCON tournaments across their international careers.
- Simy’s club career has taken him across five countries Nigeria, Portugal, Italy, and Saudi Arabia with Italian clubs Crotone, Salernitana, Parma, and Benevento all featuring on his CV before his move to the Saudi league.
