From nowhere, an unknown Nigerian emerged from the blues. At that time, he was playing for German side, Fortuna Dusseldorf and his name is Maduka Okoye.
He came at a time when Nigeria urgently needed an upgrade in the goalkeeping department because the likes of Francis Uzoho, Daniel Akpeyi and Okechukwu Ezenwa refused to up their game, leaving the coaches with just one option, which is to haunt for any available safe hands out there.
Okoye's emergence happened just when Olorunleke Ojo was also making headlines in the Nigeria professional football league. Voted best goalkeeper in the federation cup and one of the very best in the NPFL, Leke had everything going for him except that he was playing for Akwa United, later Abia Warriors and now Enyimba FC of Aba.
League watchers had expected that Super Eagles goalkeeper trainer, Alloy Agu will recommend Leke for urgent invitation however, that didn't happen as Okoye suddenly emerged from the Dutch league and today, he has used the Nigeria National team as a platform to sell himself to the world.
Wearing the green white green jersey of Nigeria comes with so much benefits and Okoye stands out as one of the biggest beneficiaries with his recent move to English premier league side Watford FC.
After the move, stories emerged that former Super Eagles coach Gernot Rohr allegedly played a key role in the deal. Himself and the present Super Eagles goalkeeper trainer, Alloy Agu, will need to explain to Nigerians what they saw in Okoye that makes them rate him higher than Akpeyi who today is a cult hero in the South Africa Premier league where he plays for Kaizer chiefs.
A camp source informed this reporter that Okoye is the latest in a long list of National team rackets that eventually consumed Gernot Rohr and his gangstars of foreign businessmen.
They have cleverly infiltrated the national team with half baked and average professionals, many of whom choose the biggest ocassions to let the country down.
That goal against Tunisia that ended Nigeria's Nations Cup dream rather abruptly, is not the first time Okoye is letting the Nation down with his silly mistakes but on other occasions, these mistakes were forgiven because there was really nothing at stake.
Many are happy today that Gernot Rohr has been sacked but inside sources say the NFF have only succeeded in cutting the tree, they have not uprooted it from the ground.
The retention of Super Eagles goalkeeper trainer Alloy Agu as part of the new coaching crew means, Rohr's ghost is still loitering around and that also means that Okoye will continue to haunt us for a long time to come
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