Emilio Nsue, a 34-year-old striker from Equatorial Guinea, is making history at the ongoing AFCON 2023 tournament in Ivory Coast. The current top scorer of the tournament, Nsue recently became the first player to score a hat-trick in the competition since the 2008 edition. He currently leads the goalscoring chart with 5 goals, followed by Algeria’s Baghdad Bounedjah and Egypt’s Mostafa Mohamed.

The AFCON group stages have been marked by unexpected players and underdogs stealing the show, making the tournament exciting to watch. Nsue, who also serves as the captain of Equatorial Guinea, has waited 16 years before bagging a hat-trick, placing him among the 17 players who have achieved this feat since the AFCON games began in 1957.

In the past editions of 2015 and 2021, Nsue, who plays for CF Intercity in the Spanish third tier, only managed to score once. However, during the current tournament, he scored a brace, and with additional goals from his teammates, Equatorial Guinea secured a win. This victory led the President of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbatsogo, to declare a public holiday and reward the team with lucrative bonuses for reaching the Round of 16.