Super Eagles goalkeeper Maduka Okoye has revealed that he is still sad after his goalkeeping error that cost Nigeria in the round of 16 of the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations, Soccernet.ng reports.
Okoye broke into the Super Eagles squad in 2019 and soon became the first-choice goalkeeper, especially as Francis Uzoho was still unproven.
Going into the 2022 Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon, many Nigerian football fans did not expect a lot from the Super Eagles after the Nigeria Football Federation sacked coach Gernot Rohr just a few weeks before the tournament and employed Augustine Eguavoen.
However, Eguavoen had an impressive performance with the team, gliding past Egypt, Guinea Bissau, and Sudan with ease. The team’s performance gave Nigerians high hopes, with many tipping them to claim a fourth AFCON title.
The Super Eagles then proceeded to face Tunisia, who were plagued with injuries in the round of 16. Nigeria were the favorites to win the game, and they dominated proceedings. Unfortunately for them, Okoye made a big error that cost them the tie.
The former Watford man misjudged a shot from Youssef Msakni, and he was punished, as the ball went past him and went into the net.
https://youtu.be/J2R5gd4BcZI?si=szKpDcheYNgFq-kn
Nigeria’s woes were further compounded after Alex Iwobi got sent off for dangerous play barely seven minutes after he was introduced into the game.
After that game, many Nigerian fans called for Okoye and Iwobi’s heads. Okoye had to even deactivate his social media account at the time. That was Okoye’s last game for the Super Eagles, as since then, he has either not been called up to the squad or he has watched from the bench.
In a recent interview, the Udinese star has admitted that he regrets that mistake, but he has already gone past it.
“At that moment, I told myself I should have done better. It pains me till today, to be honest,” Okoye told Oma.
“You could see it was a mistake because I had to keep the ball out of the goal. If I want to play at Inter Milan, then I have to do better in such situations.
“I’ve been training hard, improving in the last two years because I don’t want things like that to happen again.
“Mistakes happen, last week, Manuel Neuer, who is one of the best made a mistake. It’s part of the game, and it was hard for me as a young boy to go through it after it happened.
“I’m not just talking about what I read on social media, it’s more about the feeling of letting your teammates down, your family down, and letting your country down.
“At this stage, I’m not even reading the nonsense on social media no more. Some people still talk bad about Cristiano Ronaldo despite his achievements.
“People will always say something bad about you. I know myself that I didn’t do good in that situation, and I know that I let my teammates and my country down in that situation. And I’m still to this day unhappy and sad about it, and I wish I could do differently, but it happened and I learned from my mistake.”
Okoye seems to have gone past that mistake. And after struggling in the past two years, he returned to his best last season at Udinese. He was key in their Serie A survival fight, keeping five clean sheets in 21 games.
