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/Maduka Okoye has spoken about his first appearance for the Super Eagles in two years.
Okoye was in goal for the Super Eagles in their 2-1 defeat to Rwanda in their final Group D game of the AFCON 2025 qualifiers.
The last time Okoye was in goal for the Eagles was in the round of 16 fixture against Tunisia at the 2021 AFCON.
Commenting on his return, the Udinese first choice said despite the delegate he is delighted to once again wear the national team jersey.
“Despite the result I’m more than happy and grateful to have played in this jersey again!
“It has always been, it is and it will forever be an honour to represent Nigeria.”
26 Comments
Good to hear that,but your performance was disappointing..I have supported you but you let me down..Got to do better for an Udinese’s first choice net minder..
Lol…oga calm down. Those goals were really not his fault. Our defense was really poor in that game.. I mean, tell me how you expect him to in any way save that close-range first goal…and the second goal, too; I wouldn’t blame him.
Do better with what….?
With a well planted free header to the corner of the post from the middle of the 6 yard box or from another free shot from an umarked CF right on the edge of the 6 yard box….?
Is he 1st choice at Udinese because he’s a son or son inlaw of the owner…?
Nigerian fans just love who they want to love and hate who they want to hate.
Nwabali dropped yet another clanger vs Benin and this place has been quiet. Nobody has ever dared to say he can do better in spite of his previous gaffes
Dre – The goal Nwabali conceded against Benin was also a freeheader – zero marking. No one made much out of it because he wasn’t emotionally stable for that game. I won’t blame Okoye for two goals against Rwanda. Our defence was simply non-existent
Your choice @Drey,in my opinion he could have done better especially the second goal..I don’t do support I judge based on performance,I have no favourite as long as you’re doing well you will have my back.I’m not sentimental in my judgment like you,so do not put me in category of fans who chose who to support.
Unless you don’t follow my posts..I am not sentimentally attached to any player neither am I comparing him with Nwabali as you was thinking rather my judgment was squarely on his performances against Rwanda in my assessment I wasn’t impressed by his all round performance,he was poor and didn’t fair well that’s my opinion..
But it was a more disastrous goal to concede, John-1….LMAOoo
If any clubs in Europe was after him has many of you guys earlier fantasized, that put nail on the coffin of any further interests.
Uzoho conceded an even harder header of a corner kick vs Lesotho too and y’all came down hard on him….free header near the 6 yard box, back post, opposite corner. The boy has not recovered till date. “he should have done better” more like he should have been super man.
But Nwabali catches the air while the ball embrassingly passes between his legs…..crickets….!!!!
If I may ask…Why have you all not given a whiff about it. Why have you all kept quiet…? But even the fact that Okoye doesn’t “fight” his defenders (in the name of controlling his defence) comes under scrutiny, not to talk about conceeding a goal.
And who told you Nwabali was emotionally unstable for the game…? What made him emotionally unstable…? If he was emotionally unstable why didn’t he just excuse himself since we already had qualification in the bag. Mind you his dad only passed away the following day, AFTER the match….not b4 it.
And if his blunder for that game was due to emotional instability, what about the clangers he dropped vs the same Benin in the same stadium in the WCQ…? What about the ones he dropped vs CIV in the AFCON final that goave away our lead and handed over momentum to CIV…? What about the simple pass by EG’s Iban Edu that strolled helplessly beside him in our first AFCON game without him even making any effort. Could he too not have “done better” in those scenarios…?
And Greenturf, I have not said you shouldn’t have any opinions….far from it. Every one is entitled to his or her opinions. It only just seems every goal other keepers concede seems to generate an opinion while even Nwabali’s bloopers get swept under the carpet…..LMAOooo. Now we are having excuses being made for him that he was emotionally unstable. That’s the principal hallmark of bias. Nigerian fans just love to love who they want to love and hate who they want to hate. And I quite understand….Nwabali is the closest semblance of a “home-based” player y’all want to see displacing foreign based or foreign borns in the Super Eagles.
And Like I said earlier, Maduka isn’t 1st choice at Udinese because he’s a son or son inlaw of the owner.
I also don’t have a stake in who starts in the SE. None of them is my son, related to me or have any connections with me. I stand nothing to gain or lose seeing any of them in goal. But the culture of trying to rubbish 1 for the same sins the other commits regularly but gets away with is what must be eschewed.
In 17 caps Nwabali has let in 5 goals that question his basics of modern goal keeping, but each time the silence about it all has been defeating…..LMAOoo…as if it never even happened.
He was supposed to be the “better” one, but has kept less cleansheets and conceded more goals in as many games under much more favoured conditions.
The reason why Kaizer chiefs went for Rwanda’s GK over him (despite having na entire AFCON to himself) is clear to even us Nigerians now after playing Rwanda twice.
okay yuh caunt how many nwabili let in in how many game abi, but yur memory fade to remember yuh to did de same exercise for yuh guy okoye ba? i dared yuh to caunt how many yuh bf okoye let in de same amuont of game and yur mouth will fall into a hole and maybe we can get some peace and quite aran here without yuore crase man mumu running arand efrywere! yuh har a very confuse and disturbed old man- yuh shuld try respects yuoresel!
if yuh have noting sensible to said y not just sharap and stop seeking hattension everywere, i didnt understan how a very old man like yuh be so hopeless and vomit nonsese everywere like woman. na wa for yuh o !
Dre – That’s your opinion, you’re entitled to it. Goal keepers aren’t soight after as much as outfield players. Vincent Enyeama had the quality to play for any top European club but he spent years in Israel and later Lille. Even when we all thought bigger clubs would sign him, it never happened. Yes, I thought Nwabali had enough quality to play in Europe after his AFCON heroics but I didnt take his age into consideration. Nonetheless, I’ll always pick Nwabali ahead of Okoye any day and any time. That’s my personal preference. Every goalkeeper can make mistake. Even Enyeama had blunders – letting in a harmless-freekick from an Angolan player in 2006 World Cup Qualifier, been terrible in the 4-1 friendly game trashing by Ghana e.t.c. Ike Shorummu had a howler against Cameroon in 2000 AFCON final and proceeded to chop grass against Senegal at 2002 AFCON lol. The less said about Rufai the better. But we still regard them as greats because they made more saves than mistakes. Okoye is great for Udinese but he makes more mistakes than saves for Super Eagles.
Like I said earlier, I won’t blame him for the two goals against Rwanda bit I still prefer Nwabali.
The match is nothing to reckon with as we careless. Go in peace jóó.
Every Keeper concedes. We move on. Defence was porous.
Okoye is a no no for me as long as he refuses to move up the latter of world class. He is best described as average world class goal keeper. For now Nwabali should maintain the position until we get something better than Him.
Everyone is entitled to his or her Opinion. In my perspective Okoye is better than Nwabali however we want healthy competition in every position
kenny or kelvin or watin
hahahahahahahahahahahaha
not only okoye, yuh also forget uzoho as well, uxoho must be noba 1 han okoya noba 2, we nor kuku need nwabili at al sef pmsl!
yuh har noting but a very very big fooool! lmaaaooo!
yuh nor suppose dey open yer useless mouth dey talk about footbal, na disrespesct to de game for mugu like yuh to said anytings habout it! i blamed csn for allow fool like yuh to be arand here smh
foolish mam lmaaoo!
By their write up we already their capabilities. Calling someone mugu when you don’t even know the person, his competencies. I blame Complete sports for allowing people like this to engage with greatminds.
If you have clothes like an old man, you can not have old clothes like an old man kę.
Hmmm. I omo9ja has said a lot about Okoye, but to my surprise, many people on this platform did not understand; after the Rwanda match, it was clear that Okoye was not mentally ready enough to man the post for Nigeria.
His for the future. Nwabali is our no1 and for those who said, how would Nwabali, who plays in the South African league, play ahead of Okoye, who plays in the Italian league? But we can’t judge the situation of Nwabali like that.
What you bring in or add to the national team matters not where you ply your trade sometimes.
Nwabali’s capability is way ahead of Okoye’s class.
I will advise Siasia to try the 3rd goalie after the World Cup qualifiers because, to me, NFF Ajęwomasan can not hire a foreign coach. How? Since when NFF have been promising you Nigerians?
They are coming for Sia1 soon. Don’t say I don’t tell you Nigerians.
However, I want to say something different about this topic.
I hope we are not having another Akpoborie in Boniface. Akpoborie was as good as Boniface during his days at club level but when he came to the national team, he hardly scored.
Eguavoen is poor on this. We could see against Rwanda that Boniface was trying to score goals for Nigeria but was unlucky. Eguavoen would have replaced Boniface and brought in Umar Sodiq.
We could see the impact of Sodiq immediately after he came in.
I trust Siasia; he won’t use Boniface for more than 20 minutes in every match to build his confidence.
Some players are like that. You just find a way to bring the best out of them.
The same thing applies to Okoye. With what happened to Okoye, Okoye would have been replaced in the second half as the 3rd choice goalie.
Let’s keep encouraging Okoye, and the new coach, which likely will be Siasia, should try to give them a few minutes of action so that Okoye and Boniface can have their confidence back at the national team. Ire o. God bless Nigeria!!!
Looooool. Excuses, excuses, excuses. Though he had good reflexes, have watched that first goal severally, their was nothing stopping him for diving for the ball. The 2nd goal he didn’t even bother to rush out and confuse the player a bit. Time to try our 3rd keeper and see what he has to offer. Okoye is not mentally ready for the national team.
Hahahaha…Time to try 3rd GK…LMAooo?
Have you given up on your fake enyeama so easily after catching airballs while the real ball went between his balls in the full glare of the world…..LMAooo
I thought your low budget Chigozie Agbim does not comit blunders….LMAooo.
After doing a Huerhlo Gomez you came here lying to everyone that the header was a ballistic missle just to cook up some excuse for his jaw dropping howler….LMAooo.
Are big clubs in europe not coming for him again…???
Okoye should have stopped the 1st goal the was Nwabali stopped Benin’s 2nd goal in the WCQ under your imbecile uncle…? And he should have rush out to “confuse the player a bit” the way you are perpertually confused abi…..LMAOoo. He should have rushed out when a defender was already closing on him.
You must be a world class goalkeeping coach…..LMAOooo
Go and kick Okoye out of the national team camp the next time you see him there. Shebi na you instal am as 1st choice goal keeper for Serie A club….LMAooo
Oga demented rodent, after all the noise and excuses to have the still mentally unstable Okoye to man our post, wetin happen. Did he or didn’t he chop goal. National team no be club game mr wanker. Did’t one of your ass- lickers come out to say the goals he conceded in Serie A (15) was against the top 5 clubs, that alone shows he is still not mentally confident to man the goal post. leave our fake enyeama for us, we still have confidence in him. With all your noise that okoye has great reflexes, one simple header to punch away, rather he looked at it walk into the net. Please kindly help your brother
Lmao..@KENNETH you have time o. Someone is DEMENTED and a RODENT for that matter o…so what do you expect? If it’s a DEMENTED HUMAN then we have hope but this guy it’s finished!
I mean how can a fool be always bringing club statistics and be comparing it with national team statistics whenever the argument of who should be se no 1 goalkeeper?
What kind of punditry abi na analysis be that…
It’s not done anywhere in the world..
The two no go na? National team and club are two different set-up entirely…
Okoye no get stats or record for SE?
Why anytime them bring Nwabali SE stats the fool go run go udinese.. lmao…
And the fool is always calling someone a hater but he is always on this forum hating on Nwabali…
What a hypocrite!!
A DEMENTED RODENT type of hypocrite!!! Lmao…..
Hahahaha….cheap lying street dog.
Everything has to be thrown at you to feed on….LMAOoo
You can’t call on google to help you see that both okoye and nwabali has been in goal 17 times for Nigeria, but the bad Okoye has kept 8 clean sheets and conceeded only 13 goals, while the “world class” wannabe enyeama as conceeded 17 goals while keeping only 7 clean sheets. Please help your self make sense of that….LMAOoo
Let’s not even go into the fact that one is facing the best of the world week in week out while the other is facing strikers that cannot even make south african national team….LMAOoo
Statistics don’t tell cheap lies like you….LMAOoo
Hahahaha….cheap pathetic lying dog….LMAOoo
You are looking for support by all means because nobody gives a host about a fool like you. You even have to come here to tell cheap lies because you are looking for an ally….LMAOoo
Nobody wants to associate with stupidity…..LMAOoo
Even the person you are trying to court friendship and support from knows I have dropped their national team stats here severally even above their clubs stats….LMAOoo
But because your brain struggles to process anything that isn’t a lie properly, I guess either your brain was in comma when i did, or you just have never come across any such situations where I placed their national team stats side by side for fools like you to help the world make sense of it.
There you go, I have thrown the national team stats at you up there the same way people throw spoilt food and leftovers for your to feed on.
You can continue biting trees from here on ehn….LMAOoo
I don tire my brother, he is just a rodent like you stated. He is just a confused wanker
They say “…out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh…”
From the way you talk gleefully about “wanking” on this forum, its quite obvious its something you cannot live without doing.
Lmao! Ode..Has his millions of clean sheets been useful? Lmao imbecile! Rather it has brought embarrassment and pain to millions of Nigerians compared to Nwabali clean sheets that has brought joy to millions of homes as a matter of fact silver medal in the last afcon at Ivory coast…..his heroics led us to the final…which is a big achievement that encompasses all okoye’s record because nobody saw coming…
Or do I need to remind your sick rodent brain of the most embarrassing goalkeeping moments in se history like the blooper he committed against Tunisia at the 2021 AFCON in Cameroon that got us eliminated..
What about the Super Eagles match against the Algeria B team, where he gifted the North Africans a very cheap goal. Receiving a back pass deep in his area, he now tarried before passing and was closed down by the Algerians who forced him into an error until he conceded a largely preventable goal.
I know your rodent brain is too sick to remember all this lmao…
Hahahaha….whoof whoof whoof……see them wagging their wounded tails.
Dr.Drey has thrown the national team stats the two street dogs wanted to them like rotten and leftover food, now they are scrambling for nothings….LMAOoo
They have switched to distorting history that we were part of and saw unfolding right in our faces….LMAooo.
Nwabali’s “heroics” won them silver yet he never made ANY tournament XI released after the tournament, not the one released by CAF, nor the ones released by several press houses….LMAOoo…how Amazing…LMAOO…!!!
Nwabali’s “heroics” won them silver yet no club scout or sporting director even there in that bafana bafana league was ready to stick out their necks for him and place a premium on him. LMAOoo…..how Wonderful….LMAOOo..!
They think CAF technical team, the press and club sporting directors who were singing the praises of the GK of the team that placed 3rd in the tournament are blind fools like them…..LMAOooo
Even the dumbest fans and viewers of that AFCON knew it was Peserio’s intelligence and pragamtism to quickly switch to playing 7 defenders in front of Agbim 2.0 after he hopelessly allowed a pass from Iban Edu beat him in the first game that got us to the final, only for the overhyped showboater to drop a howler in the final and screw up the hard work of the 10 outfield players, some who were even soldiering with injuries.
Even the winners of the AFCON itself cannot say the “heorics” of their GK won them AFCON….LMAOOo….but imbeciles want to distort history for us while we are alive…..LMAOooo
Nwabali’s heroics suffered an accident and went straight into coma when Finidi striped him naked with a 4 man defence and expectedly responded in his true nature by shipping in 6 goals in just 4 games….LMAOoo. If his heroics truly won us afcon silver, it should also have saved Findi’s job too….LMAOoo. Finidi wouldn’t have been disgraced out of the SE job like that….LMAooo
To even think okoye has not even had the privilege of keeping behind 7 defenders, yet has conceeded less goals and has more clean sheets makes these street dogs more ridulously laughable.
If you like, let nwabali’s clean sheets win you 3 world cups, the FACT is that the bad, terrible poor GK has more clean sheets and has conceded less goals in the same number of matches as your fake messaih who is so good he conceded the most disgraceful goal a SE has conceded in 3 decades…LMAOoo.
Make that make sense to yourself.
When your fake enyeama with his so-called “heroics” gets out of chips united, kindly let us know. Any keeper whose “heroics” can/has won AFCON shouldn’t be keeping goal in a menial club in bafana league. Professional in the game are not fools.
I bet this clip will make a top 5 list of “just for laugh gags” or “the Science of stupid”
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Wg6iPa-62Pw
Like what…?!