Nigeria coach Jose Peseiro has defended the decision to name South Africa-based goalkeeper, Stanley Nwabili, in the Eagles 25-man squad for the African Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast.
The Chippa United shot-stopper, who is one of the two goalkeepers in the Eagles squad making their debut at the tournament, has been in great form keeping seven clean sheets in 15 games conceding 14 goals in the South Africa’s topflight division.
Despite being in great form for his club, Nwabili’s inclusion in the Super Eagles final AFCON squad received a lot of questions raised by the fans.
The three-time African champions have been bedevilled with various goalkeeping problems since former Eagles goalkeeper Carl Ikeme was forced to retire in 2018 after being diagnosed with leukaemia.
Coach Paseiro, who has tried out three different goalkeepers in close to two years since he took over as the Eagles coach, has brought in the former Lobi Stars keeper to challenge current Nigeria number 1, Francis Uzoho and Olorunleke Ojo for a place in the starting XI, but it remains to be seen whether there is enough time to effect a change before the start of the AFCON tournament.
Many Nigerian fans have raised concerns about the current poor performances of Cyprus-based goalie, Francis Uzoho including his howlers against Saudi Arabia and Mozambique in friendlies in Portugal last October.
However, in an interview on NFF TV, the 63-year old former Real Madrid assistant coach explained why he decided to select Nwabili in his squad to AFCON.
“There were not many videos of the South African league available for us. But some friends sent us videos of Nwabili’s matches in the South African league,” Peseiro said.
“I asked the NFF president to let me go there. So, I was there in South Africa for four days to speak with him, I spoke to the coach, and a lot of people. I watched the training, the practice, and I watched one match. In the final list, we decided to add him to the list after the whole evaluation.”
“We believe in him because because he showed good quality, good performance, and good capacities. Now I hope he displays the same quality he shows at his club.”
Nigeria will take on Equatorial Guinea on January 14 in their first match of Group A, before facing host nation Ivory Coast four days later. Their final group A game is against Guinea Bissau on January 22.