It turned out one of the closest contests in the history of the three seasons old VAT Wonder Goal Award and it was Sunshine Stars Sikiru Alimi who was the last man standing, shaking off tough challenge from Chijioke Alakwe of FC Ifeanyi Ubah to emerge winner of the Match Day 16 edition.
The duo took to the polls their rivalry on the pitch on the match day where both netted for their clubs.
Alimi, who has scored in successive games for his relegation dogged club led the polls both on the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) website and Twitter account with a combined total of 863 votes from a total 1745.
Alakwe’s strong showing on the website polls was undone by a comparatively poor showing on the Twitter polls where Alimi coasted with 50 percent of the 513 votes, leaving Alakwe and Kano Pillars Alassan Ibrahim with 108 votes each.
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Overall, Alakwe polled 700 votes while Ibrahim trailed in third place with 125 votes and Stephen Alfred of Kwara United finished fourth with 57 votes.
The goal by Alimi was the only goal in Sunshine Stars 3-1 loss to FC Ifeanyi Ubah which saw the striker reaching a pass after outpacing his marker, and then did a cut back to set up a right footed shot from the edge of the box.
The player will receive the prize money of N150,000 half of which will be donated to a charity to be nominated by him from the state where the club is domiciled.
The VAT Wonder Goal Award is an initiative of the League Management Company (LMC) and supported by the Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS) to deepen club community engagement and promote the campaign on the benefits of tax payment by citizens.
Rivers United Emeka Ogbugh won the award for Match Day 15.
