Maduka Okoye will remain Super Eagles’ number one goalkeeper according to Nigeria’s Assistant Coach, Emmanuel Amuneke.
Okoye was blamed following Nigeria’s ouster at the 2021 AFCON tournament after a howler from him dumped Nigeria out of the AFCON last 16 tie against Tunisia.
Following Nigeria’s painful exit from the competition, there have been calls by some section of the fans for the Sparta Rotterdam goalie to be overlooked in subsequent matches as the goalkeeping position remains a serious concern.
Amuneke has however said that the technical crew has confidence in the 22-year-old who already has 16 caps for the national team.
“I’m not a goalkeeper trainer, but we have someone in that department, which is Alloy Agu, Amuneke told Brila FM.
“Regardless, Maduka Okoye is a good goalkeeper and human being, so we can’t because of one mistake dump (him).
“He’s playing for his team (Sparta), and that’s the most important thing.”
Okoye has been invited for the Super Eagles World Cup play-off against eternal rivals Ghana as he hopes to regain confidence from fans.
Ghana will host the first leg of the encounter at the Kumasi Stadium on March 25 and then the reverse fixture will be played at the Moshood Abiola Stadium in Abuja.
The winner on aggregates will then play at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar later this year, and Amuneke insists that the technical crew is confident of Okoye.
