AFCON 2023 has lived up to the hype and expectations many had for the tournament. There have been plenty of shocks and surprises already with Ghana being knocked out, while minnows Mauritania are on course to qualify as one of the best third-placed teams.
One of the biggest pleasant surprises has been the scintillating form of Equatorial Guinea star Emilio Nsue. The versatile player has played as right back for large parts of his career, but in the Ivory Coast, Nsue has been firing on all cylinders in the centre forward role.
Nsue already has five goals to his name at AFCON 2023 leading the Golden Boot race, however, he has some world-class names closely behind him in the betting markets.
AFCON top scorer odds latest news
Emilio Nsue – (4/11)
As mentioned above, Nsue has taken AFCON 2023 by storm. Nsue has five goals to his name, including a fantastic hat-trick against Guinea-Bissau. That hat-trick was the difference between three points and a defeat having gone on to win 4-3.
Before the tournament kicked off, Nsue had found the back of the net 18 times in 38 appearances, so this sort of form was certainly not expected. Baghdad Bounedjah is currently second in the Golden Boot race, but Algeria have been knocked out of the competition, so his tally of three goals will very likely be overtaken as well as Nsue extending his lead.
Youssef En-Nesyri – (10/1)
Morocco's Youssef En-Nesyri has experienced a rather disappointing AFCON from a personal point of view. He's got just one goal to his name, however, Morocco are expected to go deep into the tournament, so this is likely why he's the second favourite for the Golden Boot.
It would take a drastic turn of events for En-Nesyri to leapfrog Nsue given the Moroccan is four goals behind the versatile player. He does still have a game in hand on Nsue, which is tonight against Zambia to round off Morocco's group stage matches.
Victor Osimhen – (12/1)
Nigeria limped through Group A at the expense of hosts national Ivory Coast – who may still qualify as one of the best losers – and Victor Osimehn played a big part in that. The Napoli striker has only scored once across three starts for his country, with Nigeria failing to score more than a single goal in each of their three group games.
The Super Eagles' focal point had a lot of expectations on his shoulders heading into the tournament after a stunning 12 months over in Italy with Napoli. However, he's boasting just 0.08 goals per shot having fired 13 efforts resulting in a single goal, which isn't good enough.
Osimhen was one of the red-hot favourites to win the Golden Boot heading into AFCON 2023, but that appears to have weighed too heavy on the Napoli striker who's got a lot of catching up to do if he wishes to leapfrog Nsue.
Mostafa Mohamed – (12/1)
Egypt booked their spot in the knockout stages thanks to a late collapse from Ghana – something which cost Chris Hughton his job – but it's not all rosy for the Pharaohs. This is because Mohammed Salah is expected to miss the rest of AFCON, unless they make the final, meaning others are going to have to step up.
Luckily for Egypt, that's exactly what Mostafa Mohamed has done. The FC Nantes attacker already has three goals to his name having found the back of the net in every single group game. Before the tournament kicked off Mohamed has just one goal in his past seven appearances for Egypt, so his upturn in form is certainly a welcomed surprise.
It's slightly bizarre that Moahmed has such long odds of 12/1 given that he's the second top scorer at AFCON whose country is through to the knockout stages. This may well be down to the fact Egypt are without their star man in Salah so aren't expected to go deep, but just a brace in the knockouts will have Mohamed tied for the lead.
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