Michael Olunga’s 28 goals in the just ended J1 League season saw him finish fourth overall in the global goal scorers chart, and just seven shy of Cristiano Ronaldo who topped the year.
Other than Ronaldo, only Robert Lewandowski and Cuban Marcel Hernandez had a better record than the Kenyan who beat Ciro Immobile, ranked fifth best scorer of the year.
Ronaldo led the global scoring table with 35 goals in 31 matches, followed by Lewandowski on 34 while little-known Marcel had 31 goals.
For his contribution, Olunga made it into the Fifa’s 2020 top four ‘little-known’ best scorers.
The Kenyan international took the Japanese league by storm when he scored an incredible 28 goals in 32 matches, more than any other player in the J1 League and fourth overall in the world best scorers chart.
His contribution saw the promoted Kashiwa Reysol finish seventh at the conclusion of the 2019/20 campaign.
Olunga’s incredible scoring ability was recognized by Fifa as he joined the elite league of strikers globally, who don’t pull much of a headline, off the pitch, but spoke the loudest with the ball on their feet in the last campaign.
Other notable achievers in the year 2020, according to Fifa is Cuban Marcel Hernandez who plays for Costa Rican club Carthagines.
Marcel scored 31 goals in 40 games, making him the top scorer in the world football in a season (2019/20), according to FIFA.com. By September 2020, he had scored 26 goals for Costa Rican outfit CD Cartagines.
Others are 26-year-old Danish Kasper Junker who plays for FK Bodo/Glimt (Norway), who netted 27 goals in 25 matches and Ramiro Rocca of Argentina who plays for Guatamala’s club CSD Municipal where he scored 26 goals in 27 matches
Olunga who is the first Kenyan to play in the Spanish top flight, also wrote history as the first Girona player to notch a hat-trick in La Liga in 2018
In the year 2019 Olunga scored eight goals in Kashiwa’s 13-1 victory over Kyoto Sanga becoming the first player do do so in the J-League
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