The head coach of Italian Serie A side Udinese has praised the contribution of Maduka Okoye in their 1-0 away win against title contenders Juventus, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.
Okoye made his seventh consecutive start in the Serie A between the sticks for the 15th placed team and played a huge role with three big saves to help them pick up only their third win of the season after 24 round of games.
So far he has conceded nine goals and kept three clean sheets, a run that has now earned him the number one spot ahead of regular first choice goalkeeper Marco Silvestri. Coach of the team Gabriele Cioffi defended his decision not to pick the 32 year old by praising the mentality of Okoye.
“Okoye instead of Silvestri? Madu is as much a pillar as Marco. The goalkeeper must be considered a player in terms of mentality, he didn’t surprise me . I’m lucky to have three strong goalkeepers and to be able to choose”, he said at the post match conference.
In a related development we can exclusively report that the 24 year old is in line for a return to the Super Eagles of Nigeria as early as March, after opting out of the Africa Cup of Nations in Cote d’Ivoire, where the team went all the way to the final before losing 1-2 to the host on Sunday.
Sources close to the player said he took the decision because he wanted to establish himself at Udinese to build his mental side, after the barrage of insults he suffered from some fans of the team after their 0-lost at the AFCON to Tunisia in the round of 16 two years ago.
He knew he won’t be first choice at the AFCON, so instead of sitting on the bench for the duration of the tournament, he stood behind and fought for the number one spot after being assured by the coach that he will get his chance in January.
With back to back clean sheets and regular run of games, he is open to a return to the Super Eagles for the qualifiers for next year’s AFCON, even though he knows displacing new number one Stanley Nwabali will be difficult following his impressive performance at the AFCON.
Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman
