Maduka Okoye joined Watford from the Dutch Eridivisie but mostly played as a second choice for the bees, before eventually moving to Italy.
Super Eagles goalkeeper, Maduka Okoye has expressed his gratitude after making his Udinese debut last night, Soccernet.ng reports.
The 24-year-old joined the Italian side from Watford, but had to be patient to finally get his chance to play, and he put up an impressive display in Udinese's 2-1 loss to Cagliari last night.
The Nigerian goalkeeper denied Cagliari chances to score the winner at least eight times in the Copa Italia' clash, before a last minute goal knocked his side out of the competition.
Despite the loss, Okoye had a great game, and was happy to finally get his chance.
“It was unfortunate, but I think that in recent times we have been developing a good mentality, offensive and pattern. I thank the club for giving me this opportunity to play, I will learn from this experience. It’s been a long time since I saw the pitch, I also thank the fans. I’m sure I will enjoy playing for this shirt,” he told the club's official website.
Okoye also expressed disappointment with the result which means Udinese end their cup journey.
“I think we pushed hard, some of us have waited a long time for this moment. We wanted to play and win, it’s difficult to finish like this because we conceded goals in the last minute. I would have been ready to face penalties but unfortunately we didn’t get there,” the goalkeeper added.
The goalkeeper will be hopeful he gets more chances to show what he can do, and hopefully reclaim the number spot from Francis Uzoho in the National Team.
Manuka Okoye should be Nigeria’s first choice keeper right now, since we failed to convince Noah Atubolu of the German Bundesliga. Uzuho isn’t intelligent enough and is clearly older than Okoye.