Hyderabad FC striker Bartholomew Ogbeche, who had seized the spotlight after becoming the joint-leading goal-scorer in the Hero Indian Super League (ISL) history, is now awarded the Hero of the Month award for January 2022, a prize which is given to the best player in the league every month.

As per the voting criteria, fans' votes count towards 50% of the vote share and experts' votes account for the remaining 50%. The forward has been chosen as per the fans’ and experts’ votes between the period that started from 1 PM on February 3 and ended at 1 PM on February 5.

Ogbeche received only 18.8% of the votes cast by fans, however, it was the experts who unanimously voted the striker as the outright winner. Thus, his cumulative percentage staggered to 59.40%, comfortably ahead of Adrian Luna for whom the fans showed great support with 75.80% votes. But with no expert picking the Kerala Blasters FC midfielder, he missed out on the award with his cumulative percentage dropping to 37.90%.

Ogbeche also beat Roshan Naorem of Bengaluru FC, FC Goa’s Jorge Ortiz, and his fellow teammate Akash Mishra who were also nominated for the award.

The Nigerian was a force to reckon with for Hyderabad FC in January. He scored six goals in five matches, including a hat-trick while also creating 11 chances.

The 37-year-old has been an important cog in Hyderabad FC’s machinery that has looked threatening and is a serious contender for the League’s Shield Winners and the title trophy.

Ogbeche joins Jamshedpur FC’s Greg Stewart (December 2021) and Odisha FC’s Javi Hernandez (November 2021) to bag the Hero of the Month award this season.