There was a prediction that Nigeria could be faced with a goalkeeper crisis following the early retirement of Carl Ikeme in 2018, PUNCH Sports Extra reports.
The former Super Eagles’ number one, who started the journey to Russia 2018 World Cup with the Eagles, was diagnosed with acute leukaemia in July 2017 but entered into complete remission in June.
Since the former Wolves goalkeeper’s retirement, several goalkeepers have been tested with none possessing the same quality as Ikeme.
Nigeria’s goalkeeping crisis has been well publicised for many years with Francis Uzoho’s howler against Saudi Arabia on Friday the latest in the poor performance of the Nigerian goalkeepers.
Uzoho turned a harmless free-kick into his own net to hand the Green Falcons the lead as Wilfred Ndidi watched his goalkeeper with despair.
It was not the first time that the Super Eagles have been hard done by blunders from the goalkeepers.
In fact Uzoho’s mistake was the latest in a series of blunders by Nigerian goalkeepers with Maduka Okoyo blamed for the Tunisian goal that knocked the Eagles out of the Africa Cup of Nations at the last-16 stage in Cameroon.
Okoye failed to save Youssef Msakni’s long-range strike two minutes after the break as the Carthage Eagles booked a place in the quarter-finals of the tournament at the expense of Nigeria, who were tagged favourites ahead of the encounter, after winning all their three group games.
The 23-year-old came under scathing criticisms again from fans following his error in Nigeria’s 2-2 draw against Algeria’s B team September last year.
Okoye was handed a rare start in the encounter eight months after his self-imposed exile from the team, after his mistake in the round of 16 of the delayed 2022 AFCON in Cameroon.
The former Sparta Rotterdam goalie was punished by Algerian striker, Karim Aribi, for an error from him after he tried to dribble the forward rather than clear the ball after receiving a back pass from one of his defenders.
Again, Okoye was never invited to the team until his latest addition to the squad for the Saudi clash.
His late call-up was due to Adebayo Adeleye’s inability to catch a flight from Israel to Portugal no thanks to the current situation in that region. team’
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Uzoho’s blunder in Portugal brought back the painful of memory of 2022 after the Eagles fail to qualify for the World Cup in Qatar.
Despite playing a goalless draw away from home, the Eagles fell behind early on when Thomas Partey’s shot from outside the box slipped between the hands of Uzoho and into the net.
Another goalkeeper who has been tested and failed to live up to expectation is Daniel Akpeyi.
Akpeyi was the target of severe criticisms on social media as the Eagles emerged third at the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt in July.
The former Kaizer Chiefs keeper was having his first shot as Eagles number one in a competitive tournament, having failed to impress in an AFCON qualifier against Bafana Bafana in Uyo, two years ago.
He did cost the team. His howler against Algeria with just seconds left in their semi-final tie, when he was poorly positioned behind his wall for a free-kick, gifted the North Africans the match winner.
After all said and done, is it time that the country turn attention to a young Tobias Lawal.
Lawal was born in Austria to a Nigerian father and an Austrian mother but made his intention of playing for Nigeria at the senior level known despite featuring for Austria U-19 and U-20 teams.
September 2020, he was called up by Gernot Rohr for Nigeria for the friendly matches against Algeria and Tunisia but couldn’t feature due to passport issue.
The 23-year-old stands at 1.95m with great agility, command in the air and the ability to use his feet very well.
He has been very impressive for his Bundelisga side, LASK.
Despite not having the best of protection in defence, Lawal has kept five clean sheets while conceding only seven goals from 10 games.
Having similar feature with Ikeme, many are beginning to ask the question if the young keeper could be the man to help solve the Eagles goalkeeping crisis.
…. Credit Punch
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