Chukwueze Becomes Fourth Nigerian With Most La Liga Matches

Nigerian and Villarreal winger, Samuel Chukwueze is now the fourth Nigerian footballer with the most La Liga games in the history of the league.

On Wednesday, May 3, 2023, Chukwueze featured for Villarreal in their 1-1 Spanish La Liga away draw at Valencia which was the youngster’s 150th La Liga game of his career.

The game was tied when Samuel Lino scored for the home team in the 72nd minute after Nicolas Jackson had given the visitors the lead in the 62nd minute.

With nine minutes left in the game, Chukwueze was substituted for Gerard Moreno.

The 23-year-old Nigerian star who has played 32 league games so far this season is now the 4th Nigerian with more La Liga appearances after Ike Uche, Mutiu Adepoju, and Finidi George.

Uche, who played for different clubs at different levels during his over 13-year European football career in Spain (Recreativo, Getafe, Zaragoza, Villarreal, Granada, and Málaga), made 193 appearances while scoring 43 goals, making him the top Nigerian scorer in La Liga.

Adepoju started his career with the Real Madrid B team and played 175 games for Racing Santander, Real Sociedad, and Salamanca. During this time, he scored 22 La Liga goals.

While Finidi made 165 La Liga appearances and scored 35 goals while representing Mallorca and Real Betis.