{"id":31304,"date":"2020-10-18T17:23:09","date_gmt":"2020-10-18T17:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.com\/nigeria\/?p=31304"},"modified":"2020-10-18T17:23:09","modified_gmt":"2020-10-18T17:23:09","slug":"okoye-keen-to-become-nigerias-number-1-keeper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/okoye-keen-to-become-nigerias-number-1-keeper","title":{"rendered":"OKOYE KEEN TO BECOME NIGERIA’S NUMBER 1 KEEPER"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa Press-Nigeria:<\/p>\n

Nigeria international Maduka Okoye is determined to establish himself as Super Eagles\u2019 first-choice goalkeeper.<\/p>\n

The 21-year-old, who is on the books of Dutch side Sparta Rotterdam, started the West African giants\u2019 recent friendly matches against Algeria and Tunisia.<\/p>\n

Okoye started in goal with the likes Daniel Akpeyi, Ikechukwu Ezenwa and Francis Uzoho absent.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, it\u2019s great and it\u2019s cool playing 90 minutes in the two friendlies. It was not easy games but I am happy with my performance,\u201d Okoye told the Punch.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the Algerian game, we conceded in the fifth minute and it was not good. There was too much on our minds.<\/p>\n

\u201cA goal that early was bad but we had to keep on going. We kept on going for over 85 minutes. As I said, it\u2019s not nice to concede goals but that\u2019s football.\u201d<\/p>\n

Akpeyi, who plays for Kaizer Chiefs in South Africa, served as Nigeria\u2019s first-choice keeper at the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) finals where the Super Eagles finished third.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m happy to be in the team. It\u2019s always better to have a clean sheet but I\u2019m looking forward to more games with the team,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will keep doing my thing and do my best and give my coach the reason to make me the Eagles first-choice goalkeeper.\u201d<\/p>\n

Katsina United shot-stopper Ezenwa was Nigeria\u2019s first-choice goalkeeper during their 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign.<\/p>\n

However, Uzoho who is on the books of Cypriot giants APOEL FC, played all of the Super Eagles\u2019 matches at the 2018 World Cup finals in Russia.<\/p>\n

Nigeria are yet to find a permanent replacement for their former captain and keeper Vincent Enyeama since his retirement from international football in October 2015.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa Press-Nigeria: Nigeria international Maduka Okoye is determined to establish himself as Super Eagles\u2019 first-choice goalkeeper. The 21-year-old, who is on the books of Dutch side Sparta Rotterdam, started the West African giants\u2019 recent friendly matches against Algeria and Tunisia. Okoye started in goal with the likes Daniel Akpeyi, Ikechukwu Ezenwa and Francis Uzoho absent. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":1709,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,18],"tags":[174,115],"class_list":["post-31304","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":"\nOKOYE KEEN TO BECOME NIGERIA'S NUMBER 1 KEEPER - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Africa Press-Nigeria:Nigeria international Maduka Okoye is determined to establish himself as Super Eagles\u2019 first-choice goalkeeper.\" \/>\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\/okoye-keen-to-become-nigerias-number-1-keeper\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"OKOYE KEEN TO BECOME NIGERIA'S NUMBER 1 KEEPER\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Africa Press-Nigeria:Nigeria international Maduka Okoye is determined to establish himself as Super Eagles\u2019 first-choice goalkeeper.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/okoye-keen-to-become-nigerias-number-1-keeper\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-10-18T17:23:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/upload\/sites\/3\/2019\/01\/NFF-logo.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"alico\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"alico\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/okoye-keen-to-become-nigerias-number-1-keeper#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/okoye-keen-to-become-nigerias-number-1-keeper\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"alico\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/50afd2ef4f0e900bd0a176404a8484a7\"},\"headline\":\"OKOYE KEEN TO BECOME NIGERIA’S NUMBER 1 KEEPER\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-10-18T17:23:09+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/okoye-keen-to-become-nigerias-number-1-keeper\"},\"wordCount\":298,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/okoye-keen-to-become-nigerias-number-1-keeper#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/upload\/sites\/3\/2019\/01\/NFF-logo.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Football in Nigeria\",\"Nigerian sports\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/okoye-keen-to-become-nigerias-number-1-keeper#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/okoye-keen-to-become-nigerias-number-1-keeper\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/okoye-keen-to-become-nigerias-number-1-keeper\",\"name\":\"OKOYE KEEN TO BECOME NIGERIA'S NUMBER 1 KEEPER - 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