{"id":27303,"date":"2020-07-13T18:12:55","date_gmt":"2020-07-13T18:12:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.com\/nigeria\/?p=27303"},"modified":"2020-07-13T18:12:55","modified_gmt":"2020-07-13T18:12:55","slug":"its-easier-for-me-to-be-super-eagles-no-1-maduka-okoyes-first-words-after-sparta-rotterdam-move","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/its-easier-for-me-to-be-super-eagles-no-1-maduka-okoyes-first-words-after-sparta-rotterdam-move","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;It&#8217;s Easier For Me To Be Super Eagles No.1&#8217; &#8211; Maduka Okoye&#8217;s First Words After Sparta Rotterdam Move"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Africa Press-Nigeria:<\/p>\n<p>Dutch Eredivisie side Sparta Rotterdam have officially confirmed the signing of one-cap Nigeria international Maduka Okoye, who was on the books of German outfit Fortuna D\u00fcsseldorf in the recently concluded season.<\/p>\n<p>Okoye has put pen to paper on a two-year deal with De Kasteelheren, with an option for another two seasons, subject to a medical examination.<\/p>\n<p>The 20-year-old is currently behind Daniel Akpeyi, Francis Uzoho and Ikechukwu Ezenwa in Gernot Rohr&#8217;s pecking order of goalkeepers but has targeted the Super Eagles number one position now that he has joined a top-flight club where he could feature for the first team.<\/p>\n<p>In his first words after the deal was confirmed, Okoye told Sparta Rotterdam&#8217;s official YouTube account when asked about his debut for the national team: &#8220;Crazy, big, important moment for myself. It&#8217;s important for me to play here, it&#8217;s<br \/>\neasier for me to get the number one spot for Nigeria, so I&#8217;ll put everything into it and give everything&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>There were a lot of clubs interested in signing the Super Eagle but he chose to move to Sparta Rotterdam.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think that this is the right spot for me, for my future, for preparing the next step, a bigger step and I just can&#8217;t wait to get started with the guys.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I got in contact with Sparta two months ago. They told me their plans for me and everything sounds great and that&#8217;s why I chose here because I feel it&#8217;s the right place for me and I feel home already.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>On his expectations for the 2020-2021 season, Okoye stated : I expect a lot for myself, I have to work hard, fight for the number one spot and give my best to help the team and myself.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Okoye, who remains eligible to represent Germany at international level, played for the youth team of Bayer Leverkusen prior to his move to Fortuna Dusseldorf in 2017.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa Press-Nigeria: Dutch Eredivisie side Sparta Rotterdam have officially confirmed the signing of one-cap Nigeria international Maduka Okoye, who was on the books of German outfit Fortuna D\u00fcsseldorf in the recently concluded season. Okoye has put pen to paper on a two-year deal with De Kasteelheren, with an option for another two seasons, subject to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":27307,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,18],"tags":[174,115],"class_list":["post-27303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-football-in-nigeria","tag-nigerian-sports"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>&#039;It&#039;s Easier For Me To Be Super Eagles No.1&#039; - Maduka Okoye&#039;s First Words After Sparta Rotterdam Move - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Africa Press-Nigeria:Dutch Eredivisie side Sparta Rotterdam have officially confirmed the signing of one-cap Nigeria international Maduka Okoye, who\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/its-easier-for-me-to-be-super-eagles-no-1-maduka-okoyes-first-words-after-sparta-rotterdam-move\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"&#039;It&#039;s Easier For Me To Be Super Eagles No.1&#039; 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