A little over two years ago on the 13th of August 2019 precisely, the list of players of the senior national team of Nigeria, who will take on Ukraine in an international friendly game was made public and one name was included for the first time.
Maduka who? Was the popular question asked by many when the name Maduka Okoye who was back then a goalkepper of the B team of Fortuna Dusseldorf was named among the goalkeppers for the friendly game.
He came into the squad due to the absence of Daniel Akpeyi who was at that time injured but what made many to question his call up was his poor statistics for the B team of Fortuna who were then campaigning in the 4th division of Germany.
Rohr was however told to trust the then 20 years old by the scout who discovered him and recruited him for Fortuna Dusseldorf in Lutz Pfannenstiel. The 48 year old saw enough potential to snap up the shot stopper when he was released by Bayern Leverkusen at the age of 17.
With Akpeyi still out injured, Okoye kept his spot for the next friendly game against Brazil despite not playing any part in the 2-2 draw against Ukraine. Francis Uzoho kept the entire duration of the game
Against Brazil, Uzoho picked up a serious injury which later cost him the rest of the season left with no choice but an unfit Ikechukwu Ezenwa (Nigeria Premier League was on break) and a rookie in Okoye, Rohr settled for the latter.
He got to play in that game for just 27 minutes and even though he had less things to do, he showed some level of maturity in his handling the two times he was required to and helped Nigeria see out the game 1-1.
That chance he got by accident didn’t seem to bother his then German team Fortuna Dusseldorf as the relegation bound team didn’t offer him fresh terms. He was subsequently released on a free transfer.
His next call up was for the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Benin Republic and Lesotho respectively. He was an unused substitute in both games with Akpeyi the man he replaced in the previous squad in goal for both games.
With his club future unclear, many thought he has hit a brick wall again but that came to nothing as few months after his departure from the German side he joined Dutch side Sparta Rotterdam.
With all three senior goalkeppers unavailable for the Super Eagles next set of friendly games. Okoye was once again summoned and this time around he had just SKF Sered goalkepper Matthew Yakubu to contend with.
He ended up keeping goal for the entire duration of the two friendly games played against Algeria and Tunisia respectively. Nigeria lost the first game 0-1 and drew the second game 1-1. Okoye can largely be excused for the goals he conceded in both games as he was badly exposed.
At Sparta Rotterdam he was sent to the B team who were in the third division known as the Jack League to keep him active until when he will be called upon by the first team, where he was first choice. He didn’t have to wait for long.
A poor run of form brought about a change in the line up of the first team and Okoye was among those introduced with the team struggling to pick up a win. Things didn’t get any better was they lost the first two games he was in goal.
It went from that low to the highest height they reach that season when they picked up their first win by thrashing ADO Den Haag 6-0. A run of four consecutive clean sheets followed suits and he was fully established as first choice ahead of Benjamin Van Leer.
At international level, the same Okoye who got his lucky break by accident with the options ahead of him unavailable became the first choice by design as he was the only active goalkepper at club level available to Rohr.
That earned him his competitive debut but it ended in a catastrophic way with Nigeria throwing away a four zero lead to draw 4-4 against Sierra Leone in the qualifiers for the Africa Cup of Nations. Rohr wasn’t moved by the criticism that followed the result as he stood by Okoye and he was in goal for the reverse tie which ended 0-0 four days later.
Since then he has kept in all but two games of the senior national team of Nigeria firmly establishing himself as the first choice of the Nigerian team and his move to Watford is a testament of his rapid growth