Udinese goalkeeper Maduka Okoye has thrown away the biggest opportunity he has to be the first choice of the senior national team of Nigeria, OwnGoalNigeria.com can exclusively reveal.
Okoye has missed two training session, and will only train once with the team before tomorrow’s game, after he was granted permission by head coach Eric Chelle to spend two extra days.
He stayed behind to model the club’s shirt, but it’s a decision that has now ultimately cost him the rare chance to upstage the returning Stanley Nwabali.
Nwabali hasn’t played for the team since the AFCON, which ironically Okoye snubbed to show loyalty to Udinese who stood by him after a ban on his alleged involvement in betting.
In Nwabali’s absence, Chelle welcomed Okoye back to the team and he kept goal in the high profile friendlies against Poland and Portugal respectively in June.
We can exclusively reveal that Okoye was supposed to keep his spot in the AFCON qualifiers for the games against Madagascar and Guinea-Bissau respectively, hence the decision not to include him in the team that will play against Russia in a friendly game on the 6th of October.
That game was supposed to be Nwabali’s return to the team, and that was why Chelle picked him as the only senior goalkeeper in the squad for the game, but that arrangement has now been altered by Okoye’s absence.
Barring a late change of mind, Nwabali is now expected to be in goal with Arthur Okonkwo as his deputy, even though Okoye will arrive today.
Sources say he is not in the plan for tomorrow’s game, with his teammates unhappy with his constant attitude of coming late to camp. An act that once made former coach Gernot Rohr to drop him in a world cup qualifiers games against Liberia.
Rohr was clear that it was the third time that he was turning up late to camp within a period of three international breaks. Based on what we gathered it’s only a matter of time before Chelle also take the same step.
Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman
