Rivers United’s Ayo Saka wins maiden VAT Wonder Goal Award

Ayo Saka’s 39th minute goal for Rivers United has been voted the VAT Wonder Goal in the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) Match Day 20.
Saka beat off a still challenge from Enyimba’s Ugochukwu Leonard to emerge with the popular votes cast by fans in the poll conducted on the NPFL twitter handle @lmcnpfl and the official website of the league, www.npfl.ng.
Ugochukwu beat Saka in the twitter polls, earning 47% of the votes while Saka had 38% and Afolabi Abdulwaheed picked 15%. However, Saka who recently joined Rivers United from Sunshine Stars edged Ugochukwu by a cumulative vote of 89.5% after he picked up 51.5% of the votes cast by fans on the website with Ugochukwu winning 37.9% to end on a total of 84.9%. Abdulwaheed of Gombe United finished third with 25.6%.
In the match against Nasarawa United, Saka had perfectly controlled a pass from Zoumana Doumbia on the left flank and with his second touch of the ball, drove into the 18 yard box past two Nasarawa United defenders before unleashing a left hook from 12 yards to the roof of the net for the only goal of the fixture.
Voters favoured his effort ahead of the long range strike from over 35 yards by Ugochukwu against Remo Stars at the Shagamu Stadium.
Saka thus emerges the winner of the inaugural VAT Wonder Goal, an initiative of the League Management Company (LMC) to enhance club-community engagement and also support the Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS) mass campaign on tax education.
Saka will receive N150, 000 from which he will donate 50% to a charity of his choice in Rivers State where his club is based. The prize will be presented at the next home fixture of Rivers United after their continental engagement in Uganda this weekend.