Sparta Rotterdam’s Maduka Okoye is now Nigeria’s first- choice goalkeeper, reports Completesports.com.
This is according to Super Eagles head coach Gernot Rohr, who believed the young shot – stopper has done enough to earn the spot after his impressive displays for the West Africans in recent outings.
“No. 1 is Maduka,” Rohr told ESPN.
“These decisions, I take them with [goalkeeper coach Alloy Agu] because he is a specialist for goalkeeper training.
“Myself and Alloy, we agreed that it’s actually Maduka. We have the experienced [Daniel Akpeyi] doing good matches with this club in South Africa.
“We have the young [Francis Uzoho] coming back after injury, but he has to play also now not only on the bench. We have also [Matthew Yakubu]. There’s a good potential now because this position was a big problem for us so we have more now.”
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Rohr also defended Okoye after the Fortuna Dusseldorf of Germany goalie conceded four goals in the 4-4 home draw against Sierra Leone last November.
“You cannot drop a player because you say he plays one bad game,”Rohr added
“It is bad for his confidence.”
The Super Eagles will face neighbours Benin Republic and Lesotho in their final two games of the of 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualification campaign next month.
By Adeboye Amosu
25 Comments
Oga! Francis Uzoho is back in goal for APOEL oo not on the bench! Are you sure you’re tracking this guys at all?? For me o, I’ll still pick Uzoho over Okoye cuz Uzoho has had very good games with Nigeria and we’re beginning to feel more relax when the opponent comes running at our defense but same can’t be said of Maduka Okoye.
For now eagles 1st eleven aina .balogun.ekong. zaibu.ndidi.yinka. aribo. Awaeziem Umar oshimen/mofi .keeper any one. .I will only tell them to 4 4 2 in 1st 30mins. 4 3 3 in next 15 min. And the 4 5 1 in the 2nd half.
Good selection
I will pick Ebuehi over Aina
U can be my assistant OK. But u didn’t name the reserves. Anyway u got 90%.
Please Tell Rohr to stop saying SE players are not playing in Liverpool n Big clubs, Keshi defeated Drogba n Yaya inspired CIV with à mixture of homebased n Pro in 2013. Keshi won nations cup for Nigeria and qualified Togo for would cup in 2006.
Tell This infériority complex coach that hé should never reduce SE to niger Republic psychologically. Siasia took U-23 players to béat Brazil in Brazil, Thats our mentality.
After the 4-0 to 4-4 debacle in Benin last year? Against Sierra Leone o. Not Cameroun or Cote D-Ivoire or Brazil. (Although there were so many many defenders’ blunders, notably from Semi Ajayi, you’ll think it was a sold game for a big betting company).
In short, we don’t have a quality goalkeeper yet – not even in the mould of Enyeama or Ikeme. And I blame your so-called goalkeeper trainers, cos you know, it’s GIGO (garbage in, garbage out). Quality goalkeeper trainer equals quality keeper.
And this below, sir, is wrong.
“These decisions, I take them with [goalkeeper coach Alloy Agu] because he is a specialist for goalkeeper training.”
Alloy Agu is not a specialist – not during his playing days, not now. That does not diminish his status as a legend in some sense. But if at least one person – no, two persons – should be dropped from the coaching crew, it should be Alloy and Yobo (what exactly is his job?).
Waow!!! dear oh dear oh dear!!!
Kel is pulling no punches o! 🙂 🙂
Kel dey vex ooo. He no wan hear today ooo 🙂 🙂 🙂
Lol @deo and @pompei, abeg make we talk the thing as e be jare. No time for window dressing.
Anytime you watch Chelsea or Ajax matches, you can’t but envy Senegal and Cameroun’s goalposts going to Afcon 2021.
I feel the same way anytime I watch Kaizer Chiefs play (hahahahaha) make I look for Pompei and Chairmanfemi’s trouble…. 🙂 🙂 🙂
Behold! The man in charge has spoken.if you have any issue with that? Go to Ajegunle, mushin etc and assemble your own team
I love Okoye. His humility, his attitude, his work ethic. A great goalie and person to have in the team, he is. I have high hopes for him for the present and the future.
Having said that, I don’t think Maduka is in a place right now where he can be called Nigeria’s first choice goalie. The goalies that occupied that position in the past e.g. Peter Dodo Mayana Rufai, Vincent Enyeama, Carl Ikeme, etc where so solid, so established, they where undisputed first choices. Maduka is not there yet.
For now, our top 2 goalies are Maduka and Uzoho. Behind these 2 are Osigwe and Tobias Lawal. These are the best goalies we have currently, in my fallible opinion.
With time, the cream will rise to the top, and we will know who our first choice goalie is.
You left out Daniel Akpeyi…..
Hehehehe Deo, you don come again oooo!
Ok, for Deo’s sake, let me add the Akpeyesque one to the list.
@Coache….
What happened the following 2 afcons???
(this question is begging for direct answers….)
that is how Asen Wenger was making sure Arsenal remain in top 4, qualify for UCL and collect huge sum of money, groom young players and eventually sell them to bigger clubs, where still feared in europe etc, boom some sect of people started pressing the “self-destruction button and wanted Wenger out….”
insisting they want EPL, UCL et all.
Here comes Arteta, Arsenal is miles away from UCL spot, No EPL, No UCL, can’t groom young players for sell, doesn’t posses that fear factor anymore et all….
Keshi won us afcon, the following afcons we became underdog fundly call “SUPER CHICKENS” by the elite teams, the whole country celebrate when we FORCE minos like KENYA, GARBON, NAMIBIA et all to draw….
We panic and tremble when we meet big teams.
This PE teacher coach came and for the past 5yrs we are still feared by african opponent, present us a team that can last for the next 3 to 4 afcons.
Gone are the days we wait for brazil to loose to Jordan for Nigeria to qualify. Now qualifiers is like INTER HOUSE SPORT COMPETITION.
ONLY A BLIND MAN CANNEVER SEE THE BENEFIT WHICH ARE SO NUMEROUS.
LET ME STOP HERE FOR NOW.
:::SHALOM:::
@Coache….
Let me still add….
I’ll rather be “CONSISTENT” than be a one-season wonder and fizzle out and never to resurrect.
The way SE was sinking i never thought we could reach this state again.
Nowonder foreign coaches were running away from coaching SE until this PE teacher came and use the same set of boys to dorminate africa….
Loosing to only 4 african teams in 5 good years…. Only one of the team’s lost(algerian afcon semi final lost) affected us; else the rest are just like the “P” in “pSYCHOLOGY”…. Meaningless….
There we go again.
“No. 1 is Maduka,” Rohr told ESPN.
“These decisions, I take them with [goalkeeper coach Alloy Agu] because he is a specialist for goalkeeper training.
Myself and Alloy, we agreed that it’s actually Maduka”.
What merited Okoye to be no1?
How many games he has played for Nigeria so far for him to deserved that title?
There is a big difference between world class coach and average coach. We can tell now.
We can see what we have now and for both of the coaches doing like this means that they are not the solutions.
Instead of the two coaches to letting it clear to our goalies most especially Okoye that you are not the no1. For you to be the no1, you still have a lot to improve on but they spits this out and Okoye will feel like I have arrived and ego as usual will started from there.
By this statement Okoye is no1, how would they think Uzoho would feel?
The guy got injured during the national assignment and you as the coach of the team can’t maintain to sustain his position making it unknown to the number third goalie to realized his position in the team?
At this junction, they are still talking about Akpeyi?
While we have so many young goalies they can call on board?
You are expecting the coach to do well but how? In what way if I may ask?
I have said it the gaffer can’t build a team but he will continue having fantastic players without any meaningful achievement.
Nonetheless, I do not hate the coach and am not anti Rohr but we have to be honest with ourselves.
“There’s a good potential now because this position was a big problem for us so we have more now.”
I disagree with you Oga Rohr. We never lack qualities in that department it is only you and Oga Agu that rigidi to give room for other young goalies to excel in your team period.
“Rohr: Maduka Okoye Is Nigeria’s First- Choice Goalkeeper” can you imagine that?
“We have the experienced [Daniel Akpeyi] doing good matches with this club in South Africa”. What does that mean?
What did we achieve with his experience? Bronze medals but why can’t both of the coaches try out a new thing?
We have Uzoho, Alanpasun, Okoye and Yakubu, all of these four goalies are not good enough but Akpeyi? I am speechless and I have no hope in what Oga Rohr and Mr. Agu are building for Nigeria. God bless Nigeria!!!
@omo9ja: …i am speechless and i have no hope in what Oga Rohr and Mr. Agu are building for Nigeria…
But wait o; does it mean all this while we have been argueing with a hopeless personallity in CSN forum?
If you are “HOPELESS”, why not go and hug transformer at once and allow those that have hope on this forum to comment in peace?
:::::SHALOM:::::
@omo9ja,
Why are you always flip-flopping? You are the same person who always cry on this forum for Rorh to make Maduka no 1 that he is indeed no 1. I tire for you, I doubt if you really read what you write most times
Nigeria Super Eagles don’t have a goal keeper at the moment, Vincent Enyeama and Ikeme marks the end of an Era. Alloy Agu is not a good goalkeeper trainer, all these are simple facts may God help us to resolve this problem before it comes back to hunt us. Dele Alampasu and Ajiboye would have been groomed with their decent talent to do a good job but the misfortune of life is taking its toil on them.
Who can tell me a Nigerian goal keeper in the whole world that keeps in a better league than Okoye now? Give me a goal keeper who has been the number 1 for his team consistently for the last 3 months? Also tell me a Nigerian goal keeper that was ever the No 1 keeper of a club in the class of the dutch league at the present age that Okoye is right now? Okoye will surely move to a bigger club in the next two years. Few goalkeepers at his age are doing what he is doing right now. He has German mentality and training. In the next 10 yrs, baring any injuries he will be a hit. Goalkeepers get better with age. No Nigerian goalkeeper is better than him at this time. If you find one just let us know. Gaskia.
Isaac Oloju
Yes you are on point
Anyway the coach have the right to pick him for number one position, because he is taller(Germans like tall keepers because of range shots) he plays regularly for a big team in a big league, which can’t be compared to Southafrica or Cyprus league so logically he is number one. But our eyes still tells us that uzoho ahead of him and you know we Nigerians our eyes don’t decieve us. Uzoho and okoye will be like the case of enyeama and ejide, which was a very tight and strong competition for the team and it was good for the eagles, the man who comes first will always give us his best.
I prefare Maduka Okoye