Thursday, March 28, 2024

Russia 2018: Okoye in Eagles radar!

Super Eagles coach, Gernot Rohr, has expressed delight to cap another talented Nigerian teenager in Fortuna Dusseldorf’s goaltender, Maduka Okoye, ahead of the 2018 World Cup.
In order to encourage more eligible Nigerian players at home and in the Diaspora to vie for shirts in the Russia 2018-bound Super Eagles squad, Rohr had, last month, handed a debut to 19-year-old Deportivo de La Coruna goalkeeper, Francis Uzoho, in an international friendly against Argentina.
Born in Düsseldorf, Germany, to a Nigerian father, 18 years ago, Okoye can play for the Super Eagles if the grandfather rule is invoked by the Nigeria Football Federation since he is not cap-tied to his country of birth, Germany.
‘’We worked very much on this position. We took a second goalkeeper coach to work with the local coach for the goalkeepers.
“Now we have also Francis who did well against Argentina, but still we have to work on him. We have still Alampasu, and I saw another one with Fortuna Dusseldorf, Okoye.We will look at him also,’’ Rohr said.
This season, Okoye has posted four shutouts in 13 appearances for Fortuna Dusseldorf’s youth and reserve teams, while conceding 20 goals.
He joined Fortuna Dusseldorf in the summer of 2017 from Bayer Leverkusen.
Meanwhile, this recent development confirms that Super Eagles are still searching for a goalkeeper after the first choice, Karl Ikeme was hospitalised with Leukaemia.
The good news, however, is that Okoye has agreed to feature for Nigeria, according to report if invited and Rohr has assured that he will add the rising star to his pool of players next year when they play their friendly games.
“We will look at Okoye in the coming games to see if he will be able to push for a spot in the team we are preparing for the World Cup,” he said.
Born in Germany to Nigerian parents, Okoye has yet to man the goal for the first team of the second division team in Germany, and only made his debut for the U-23 in October.

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