Cyriel Kolawole Dessers (born 8 December 1994) is a professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

for club

Cremonese Cremona (, also ; ; lmo, label= Cremunés, Cremùna; egl, Carmona) is a city and ''comune'' in northern Italy, situated in Lombardy, on the left bank of the Po river in the middle of the ''Pianura Padana'' (Po Valley). It is the capital of the ...

. Born in Belgium, he plays for the Nigeria national team.

Club career

OH Leuven

During the 2013–14 season, 19-year-old Dessers stood out in the reserves and youth competitions for OH Leuven, scoring over 20 goals. With OHL in danger of relegation and several first team strikers either out of shape, injured or suspended, he was given his first minutes in the first team in a 3–2 away loss against

Mons Mons (; German and nl, Bergen, ; Walloon and pcd, Mont) is a city and municipality of Wallonia, and the capital of the province of Hainaut, Belgium. Mons was made into a fortified city by Count Baldwin IV of Hainaut in the 12th century. T ...

Lokeren and NAC Breda

In April 2014, Dessers signed a two-year deal with

Lokeren Lokeren () is a City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality located in the Belgian Provinces of Belgium, province of East Flanders, and belongs to the Waasland, also called ''Land van Waas'', of which it is the second ...

. In July 2016, he signed with

NAC Breda NAC Breda (), often simply known as NAC, is a Dutch professional football club, based in Breda, Netherlands. NAC Breda play in the Rat Verlegh Stadium, named after their most important player, Antoon 'Rat' Verlegh. They play in the Eerste Divi ...

on a contract until summer 2019, of Dutch second-tier

Eerste divisie The Eerste Divisie (, en, First Division) is the second-highest tier of football in the Netherlands. It is linked with the top-level Eredivisie and with the third-level Tweede Divisie via promotion/relegation systems. It is also known as the ...

. On 28 May 2017, they were promoted to the

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; ''"Honour Division"'' or ''"Premier Division"'') is the highest level of professional football in the Netherlands. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start of professional football in the Netherlands. It is c ...

, after a 1–4 victory over

NEC is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. The company was known as the Nippon Electric Company, Limited, before rebranding in 1983 as NEC. It prov ...

, in which Dessers scored three goals. He finished the season with 29 goals in 40 matches.

FC Utrecht

In July 2017, Dessers moved to

FC Utrecht Football Club Utrecht () is a Dutch professional football club based in Utrecht. The club competes in the Eredivisie, the top tier of Dutch football, and plays its home matches at the Stadion Galgenwaard. The club was formed in 1970 as a merge ...

, agreeing a contract for three years with an option for an additional year. On 11 August 2017, he scored the first goal in the competition. After the

2019–20 Eredivisie The 2019–20 Eredivisie was the 64th season of the Dutch football league Eredivisie since its establishment in 1955. The season began on 2 August 2019 and was suspended on 12 March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the Netherlands. The season ...

season was abandoned, Dessers was jointly awarded the top goalscorer award alongside Steven Berghuis with 15 goals each.

Genk and loan to Feyenoord

On 30 June 2020, Dessers moved to

Genk Genk () is a City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality located in the Belgian Provinces of Belgium, province of Limburg (Belgium), Limburg near Hasselt. The municipality only comprises the town of Genk itself. I ...

on a four-year deal. On 31 August 2021, Dessers returned to the Netherlands to join

Feyenoord Feyenoord Rotterdam () is a Dutch professional football club in Rotterdam, which plays in the Eredivisie, the top tier in Dutch football. Founded as Wilhelmina in 1908, the club changed to various names before settling on being called after its ...

on loan with an option to buy. He scored his first goal for the club on 19 September, scoring Feyenoord's fourth goal in a 4–0 away win against PSV. On 1 June 2022, Feyenoord announced that they had opted not to exercise the option to purchase Dressers' contract.

Cremonese

On 10 August 2022, Dessers signed with

in Italy.

International career

Born in Belgium to a Belgian father and Nigerian mother, Dessers chose to represent

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

at international level in December 2019. On 4 March 2020, he was called up by Nigeria head coach

Gernot Rohr Gernot Rohr (born 28 June 1953) is a German professional football manager and former player who was most recently the manager of the Nigerian national team. Managerial career In 1996, he managed Girondins de Bordeaux to the UEFA Cup final, whe ...

as part of the team players invited for the

Africa Cup of Nations The Africa Cup of Nations referred to as AFCON (french: Coupe d'Afrique des Nations, sometimes referred to as CAN, or TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons), and sometimes as African Cup of Nations, is the main internati ...

qualifying fixtures against

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierra ...

. Dessers debuted in a Friendly (association football), friendly 1–1 draw with

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

on 13 October 2020.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Nigeria's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Dessers goal.''

Honours

Genk *

Belgian Cup The Belgian Cup (french: link=no, Coupe de Belgique; nl, Beker van België []; german: link=no, Belgischer Fußballpokal) is the main Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in Belgium, run by the Belgia ...

: 2021 Belgian Cup Final, 2020–21 Feyenoord *

UEFA Europa Conference League The UEFA Europa Conference League (abbreviated as UECL) is an annual football club competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. Clubs qualify for the competition based on their ...

runner-up: 2021–22 Individual * Eredivisie top scorer: 2019–20 * UEFA Europa Conference League top scorer: 2021–22 * UEFA Europa Conference League Team of the Season: 2021–22

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dessers, Cyriel 1994 births Living people People from Tongeren Footballers from Flemish Brabant Nigerian people of Belgian descent Belgian people of Nigerian descent Belgian sportspeople of African descent Black Belgian sportspeople Sportspeople of Nigerian descent Citizens of Nigeria through descent Nigerian footballers Belgian footballers Association football forwards Oud-Heverlee Leuven players K.S.C. Lokeren Oost-Vlaanderen players NAC Breda players FC Utrecht players Heracles Almelo players K.R.C. Genk players Feyenoord players U.S. Cremonese players Belgian First Division A players Eerste Divisie players Eredivisie players Serie A players Nigeria international footballers Belgian expatriate footballers Belgian expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Belgian expatriate sportspeople in Italy Nigerian expatriate footballers Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Italy Expatriate footballers in the Netherlands Expatriate footballers in Italy