Former Super Eagles goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama will begin trials with French Ligue 1 outfit Dijon FCO today (Friday) in his quest to sign a contract, reports Completesports.com.
The trial period will end on Wednesday, July 31st when the club is expected to make a decision on whether or not to hand him a contract.
Enyeama, who is the most capped Nigerian player in history with 101 appearances for the Super Eagles last featured for another Ligue 1 club, Lille Metropole.
He was forced out of the club by then handler of the side, Marcelo Bielsa who deemed him surplus to requirements.
The 36-year-old had been sidelined by a knee injury for close to two years now and is willing to return to action in the French top flight.
The former Enyimba of Aba goal tender previously had stints with Isreali clubs, Bnei Yehuda, Hapoel Tel Aviv and Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Enyeama won three Africa Cup of Nations bronze in 2004, 2006 and 2010 before winning it with the Super Eagles in 2013 in South Africa. He also featured in 2002, 2010 and 2014 FIFA World Cups for Nigeria.
By Adeboye Amosu
23 Comments
Goalkeepers are like wine, they get better as they get older. Ol boy, cast your face in the direction of the SuperEagles.
Half fit Enyeama is better than what we ve got right now in d SE, especially Akpeyi n Ezenwa. I saw a pic of Enyeama diving to stop a free kick n another pic of Akpeyi, don’t know whether to call that diving or iving, the d probably refusing to turn up; I could straight away just tell d difference between both keepers. All Enyeama needs is fitness as well as imbibe forgiveness towards people that might hurt him. He still got 4 more decent years of football as a goal keeper in him. SE sure will need him once he is fit n ready to go.
“Half fit Enyeama is better than what we ve got right now in d SE”…..really, the same way a half fit Rufia was better than Willy Okpara and Abiodun Baruwa in 1998….??? Or the same way an ageing Best Ogedengbe was better than Peter Fregene @ Libya 82…??
Lets be careful what we wish and call for. If you know what it means for a Vincent Enyeama to be going for TRIALS at clubs like Dijon, then you will temper your expectations with some patience.
Lets pray for him to have a successful trials for him first…and then we’ll see what happens afterwards…!
@Drey I maintain, that half fit Enyeama is better than both keepers I mentioned, no going back on that n not a case of wishing them bad. I took time to watch our games again, paying particular attention on our defence, d keepers most especially. I noticed that Uzoho was by far a better goalkeeper to d other two. My disappointment with those two is,how long will it take them to b ready? Enyeama was ready as soon as Shorumu left. Uzoho was ready as soon as he got d chance, Ikeme was ready as soon as he got invited. Those two just going to there to fill up spaces. Every keeper do conceded goals but keepers without good quality concede silly goals n are very inconsistent. Mentioning Baruwa n Willy, haba @Drey, you won’t compare Akpeyi or Ezenwa to any of them two. Those two were better class n anyone could HV frowned at calling on Rufai to replace them then, even I myself did then. Ezenwa could somehow HV bn ok. But he just seem to lack ambition. Not serious with his club performance believing d national team is his, at any given time but for Akpeyi, let’s just forget it, he lacks everything. You don’t get such opportunities he had n not take it.
And one very clear observation about our defence,is they were not communicating. It was a case of I m defending instead of we are defending. I think Ekong already struck that communication with Balogun but d sudden change to Omeruo, despite his great form just couldn’t mix. Quite fascinating n something to learn going forward for Rohr n fans always clamouring for change. It could easily breakdown communication. Most of d goals we conceded,besides Akpeyis lack of confidence were due to lack of communication.
Bro Ezenwa is far better than Akpeyi,his only undoing going into the 2019 Afcon was lack of mstch fitness. And dat robbed him of his tournament as first choice goalie
With regards our defense, the lack of communication was a clear as daylight, a whole lot of time, both ekong and omeruo where bumping into each other, chasing the same balls and also not organizing the rest of the defence properly. But you cant blame any of them. It will be near impossible to have a perfect chemistry between both of them.
I’ve written an analysis of the Beauty and the Beast central defense pairing method on this forum once or twice before. You cant have 2 beasts in central defense otherwise calamity awaits you. Both ekong and omeruo are the brawn type of central defenders (the beasts), Balogun epitomizes the other half which is Beauty…..calm, intelligent, comfortable with the ball, calculative, ability to launch attacks from defense. The moment when we couldnt find a way of balancing out both, i knew we were in for problems and likely mishaps. Balogun doesnt seem to have much time left though. The earlier we start looking for another beauty to replace him, the better for us…!
@Drey your using that phrase; the beauty n the beast captures it all. Just what two centre should represent. Remember Taribo/uche, Eboigbe/Eguavoen etc. For Cameron Emmanuel Kunde/Njitap or Stephen Tataw.
@Drey matured as always thumbs up mann
@ Glory, Uzoho has always been our best goal keeper since he made his debut against Argentina. The boy is always as cool as ice-water whenever he is in goal….and that’s what most people misinterpret as lacking guile. For a young African goal keeper to be so trusted in Spain is not beans (and the dude duly justifies it with great performances).
He virtually walks into the 1st XI of any team he joins in Europe. He returned to his new team Omonia Nicosia this week and he kept the very next match they played. Same thing when he moved to Anorthosis on deadline day and kept in the match they played the following day. He was 2nd choice to Alampasu at u17 level but the only things we still hear about dele are his exploits back then, Where as Francis keeps raking game time and clean sheets as first choice in every team he goes to.
It was the impatience of deluded fans that forced Uzoho to be dropped to the bench…just because of 1…I mean 1 harmless and meaningless mistake he made against Seychelles. Enyeama too used to be even far sloppier when he started too….he didnt hit dizzying heights immediately he was handed the baton by shorunmu….his many howlers cost us big time, i cant forget matches like vs angola in luanda, vs ethiopia in abuja, vs malawi in abuja, vs brazil in abuja, vs venzuela in london, vs angola in kano and vs ismaili in ismaila. But Christian chukwu was very patient with him. I remember vividly many fans complaining we were going to Tunisia 2004 without a goalkeeper back then, only for Vincent to emerge as best goalkeeper of the tournament.
Similar thing would have happened to Uzoho if he had remained no 1 in Egypt. We wasted an entire tournament trying to ‘groom’ a 32 year old goalkeeper when we had a 21 yr old who wasn’t bad in anyway. The most assured goalkeeping we had all through AFCON was in the match against Tunisia when uzoho was in goal. That was when short-sighted overzealous fans who pulled him down now started realizing it would have been better to leave in as no 1.
Bt all that is in the past, already Akpeyi would know he has played himself out of the SE for good now. Ezenwa can still remain ICE, but rohr has said he would bring in young guns like Maduka and Osigwe subsequently. But its indisputable…Francis Uzoho is heads and shoulders above all the rest….home or abroad…!
Very true@ Drey.
But should we continue to hope for Enyeama’s return to SE? How long will he stay? It is better to shop for young and talented keepers that could be around for at least 10 years than having him for less than expected.
Enyeama abandoned the country when we needed him most. His plan was to focus on club football. What did he get at the end of day “surplus to requirment”
If he continued playing for eagles there is no way he would be struggling to find a club even if it was one in Cyprus or in Israel. His days are over, and he should retire.. What pride does to a man. Let him ask Mikel who was a true hero of our team, you don’t chicken out cos you feel you are indispensable. Mikel who they kidnapped his father still played but eyeama I don’t know his problems
Na wa for you fans, 101 caps is it beans. His is a legend and the longest serving player till date. He deserves more respect. And should be honored by NFF. He doesn’t need to come back, will he play forever.
Enyeama should not come back to the SE we don’t need him . we will utilize our our current keepers. Up SE
At this age, Enyeama will be prone to injury. I doubt if they will make him their first choice.
The guy is retired from the SE. Let it stay so. He was one of the best we ever had, but he can’t keep at it for ever.
All the best Mr. Enyeama.
I wonder ooo we have moved on without him. Someone attacked me when I said he abandoned us when we needed him most that we don’t need him again. He had issues with Oliseh not the whole country but the manner he left the team was disappointing to say the least. Enyeama was unknown when he was taken to 2002 world cup and he didn’t remember where he was coming from when he took that infamous decision. We are not going to rehabilitate him. He should enjoy the few years left in his career. The search continues as we have many enyeama in the streets waiting.
Inasmuch as i understand your grievances I’ll admonish us to forgive him for the manner left the team after a row with another patriot in Oliseh…Forgive him not because he should come back but as a Mark of appreciation and respect for his patriotic service and pride he brought us at his prime
One player that would join him soon to do trial in lowly football clubs would be victor Moses. He feels too important. After telling the media he won’t continue in fenerbache and going to join conte in inter, he became static in turkey when inter couldn’t get him. By the time they bench him and he starts looking for clubs to play people would say they should invite him since his is the only one that kick the round leather
Stop wishing people bad…. and what have u offered the nation?
The Dr. Always on point…@ drey i concur with all ur above submissions keep it up mann
When a player is retired we should learn to move on from them.
Playing for the national team is something one should be passionate about.If the enthusiasm the passion to serve your fatherland is gone then their is no point.
I’m not of the opinion of clamouring for retired players who should stay retired and be a fan.We should wish them well and acknowledge their service to the country and forever make them heroes.
I am happy for Enyeama that he is getting his career back on track however, any idea of luring him back to the national team is unicorn thinking as far as I am concerned: he has served his time and all that is now in the past.
Back to the present, I don’t think Akpeyi should continue being our number one goalkeeper and I will tell you why.
For me, the goalkeeper of my national team should meet 3 standards:
1.Possess basic and acceptable goalkeeper skills.
2. Play in an organised league in 1st or 2nd division
3. Exude confidence with the right body language.
For me, Akpeyi has 2/3 while Uzoho has 3/3.
So, with a bit more experience, I will go for Uzoho. But because Akpeyi is only deficient in 1 area, hrnce he was manageable at the Afcon owing to Uzoho’s off-the-field issues and Ezenwa’s questionable form.
However, going forward, Rohr should provide credible options in the goalkeeping department. Uzoho, for all the confidence that he exudes when in Tue right frame of mind, he is still rough around the edges in certain areas.
For a big team like the Super Eagles, we should be going into matches with a selection goalkeepers that fill us with confidence but that is sadly not the case at the moment.