Five goals scored and the title of top scorer. CAN 2024 has something to satisfy Emilio Nsue who, at 34, has reached fulfillment with his selection, Equatorial Guinea. The top scorer trophy was awarded on Sunday, after Ivory Coast's victory against Nigeria, to the striker who is currently playing in the 3rd Spanish division.

Emilio Nsue has been at the top of the rankings since the group stages after his hat-trick against Guinea-Bissau (4-2) then his double against Ivory Coast (4-0). It was a personal goal, as he explained on January 19 to the sports site Relevo.com, "to tell my son tomorrow that I was top scorer in the African Cup ahead of Salah, Mané and Osimhen."

Trained in Majorca, where he started, this son of a Spanish mother and an Equatorial Guinean father then traveled widely, from Middlesbrough (England) to Tuzla (Bosnia) via APOEL Nicosia (Cyprus). But he has rarely experienced such exposure. “At 34, I feel better than ever,” he says.

Nsue, already a semi-finalist at home in 2015, is also happy to take his personal revenge on the CAN two years ago in Cameroon, which he approached while he was unemployed.

🇬🇶 Emilio Nsue is officially the #TotalEnergiesAFCON2023 Puma Golden Boot winner! ⚽



5️⃣ goals in 4️⃣ games for the Equatorial Guinea captain! @pumafootball pic.twitter.com/Wsu77Yp8Nd

— CAF (@CAF_Online) February 11, 2024

“Good for retirement” during CAN 2022

“I was without a team for six months,” he says. "I had a very big family problem and I trained alone. At the CAN, I didn't make a fool of myself, but I was at the limit. I wasn't feeling well physically. That moment was very hard . When a whole country expects so much from you and you see that you are not giving it to them and you know that you cannot give it."

“I am very motivated, this African Cup that I experienced so badly gave me the strength to believe that I could not fail in this one, that I had to come away with a better taste in my mouth. Besides, this is perhaps my last African Cup,” Emilio Nsue also confided.

This year, success was on his side, unlike CAN 2022. “When I had an opportunity I missed it”, he remembers, “today I took it”. After the hat-trick against Guinea-Bissau "I was a star and during the previous African Cup, I was ready to retire. That's football. All professionals experience it."

Also read CAN 2024: best player, scorer, coach... who are the big winners?

Welcomed in Equatorial Guinea “as if I were Cristiano Ronaldo”

But in Equatorial Guinea, “I feel loved,” he says.

“My father always spoke to me about the Guinea team,” rewinds Emilio Nsue, European Under-19 and Under-19 champion with Spain. “At one point, at the age of 21, Guinea took me very seriously by offering me the chance to represent my father’s country, which is also mine by its roots, by blood, by family.”

He began with a hat-trick against Cape Verde (4-3), a match ultimately lost on the green carpet (3-0)... because Emilio Nsue did not yet have all the necessary documents to play for Nzalang Nacional (l 'National Flash). But he received the armband from his second selection.

In 2013, "I was playing in the first division with Mallorca and they welcomed me at the airport like I was Cristiano Ronaldo. For a La Liga player to come and play for Equatorial Guinea, who at that time were losing every game , they thanked me a lot. There, I really felt like a god."

“I am very grateful and very happy with what I have experienced these twelve years. Equatorial Guinea has given me a lot and continues to give me,” concludes Nsue.

With AFP

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