The goalkeepers crisis rocking the senior national team of Nigeria has opened the door for coach of the team Jose Peseiro to look at other options aside the trio of Adebayo Adeleye, Francis Uzoho and Maduka Okoye.
Uzoho is for now the preferred first choice despite his latest blunder, where he was poorly positioned for the shot that helped Algeria beat Nigeria 2-1 in a recent international friendly game. His deputy Okoye also dropped a howler two days before that of Uzoho in a friendly game against the B team of Algeria, it ended in a 2-2 draw.
Israel based Adeleye played the second half of the 2-2 draw against the B team of Algeria but didn’t quite inspired confidence in the coaching crew. Hence they are still on the look out for more options before the team returns to competitive games next year.
One player who has thrown his hat in the ring is Arthur Okonkwo, the Arsenal goalkeeper who is on loan to English League Two side Crewe Alexandra. The former England youth international is willing to switch allegiance to Nigeria.
” We had that discussion and he (Okonkwo) said if he gets a call up he won’t say no. He is in the second phase of his young career and that is getting regular run of games. The past two seasons he learnt the ropes by watching on as third choice at Arsenal. Now he is experiencing how it feels in real time”, a member of his representatives told OwnGoalNigeria.com.
21 year old Okonkwo will return to Arsenal at the end of his loan deal. He presently has five clean sheets from 16 games in the English third tier, which puts him in the conversation about who has the most in the division.