The race to score the most goals in the 2021/ 2022 Rwanda premier league is very tight. After 22 games played, the top scorer accolade contest will go down to the wire with several players in contention.
AS Kigali star Hussein Shabani leads the race with twelve goals followed by Samuel Nwosu of Etoile who has banged in ten. Abedi Bigirimana of Kiyovu has nine, Hassan Djibrine of Gasogi has nine with William Opoku Mensah of Mukura having nine respectively.
Unlike previous years, the race for the top scorer is very tight this campaign as all the five players who are in contention are capable of winning it with eight matches to go.
In the past four years, there has been a good standard set in relation to the number of goals the top scorer gets with the exception of last season when the goal tally dropped.
In 2018/2019, Ghanaian striker Michael Sarpong netted sixteen goals as Rayon Sports lifted the title. Nigerian attacker Samson Babua who was plying his trade with Sunrise FC in Nyagatare also won the crown with fifteen goals in the 2019/2020 season.
Last season another Ghanaian Robert Saba scored eleven goals for Kiyovu Sports to claim the honor.
With eight matches to go, it is evidently clear that the top scorer could break or equal Sarpong's tally of four years ago.
Looking at the games left, all the five players have a fair chance to win the award.
Etoile striker Samuel Nwosu Chukwudi who has been on fire raking in ten goals so far and is second in the top goal scorers chart insists the accolade is just a bonus if he emerges as the winner and his main aim is to help his club escape relegation.
"For me, this season with Etoile has been my best season in Rwanda and so far I have been able to show the rest of the teams my capacity to hurt any team at any given time, All Thanks to God." Nwosu told Times Sport in an interview.
Mukura Victory striker William Opoku Mensah who has eight goals in the league also emphasized that the race for the top scorer accolade is open and he is keen to win it.
"It is too close to know who might eventually win the accolade but I am very determined to score more goals and win it," Opoku said.
Frank Ngabo, a sports journalist, thinks Hussein Shabani will win the award because he is a veteran and has more expertise at this stage than all his competitors.
"Shabani is a more experienced player than all the others who are in the race, and again AS Kigali don’t have difficult fixtures on paper with the exception of the game against SC Kiyovu, so he will get more goals,” Ngabo stressed.
In a nutshell, this season's top scorer race will go down as one of the most competitive in the league.