The international future of Maduka Okoye is far from dead with the coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Jose Peseiro a big fan of the 24 year old , OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.
Okoye recently left English Championship side Watford for Italian Serie A side Udinese after a torrid one year in England. That time coincided with some of his worse performances in a Super Eagles shirt costing him his number one spot.
Peseiro who took over as coach a year ago played Okoye in the test game against the B team of Algeria in a close door friendly game, and his howler led to the goal the team conceded.
He was on the bench in the 0-4 friendly game loss against Portugal in November. It was the last time he was involved with the team with injuries and lack of game time cited as the reason why he wasn’t handed a call up since that game.
However he is back to full fitness and constantly in the matchday squad for Udinese since he joined the team on a four year deal. That appears to have put him back in contention for a return to the team.
” Okoye is now active after a while. You can’t say he isn’t getting games in the Serie A because Francis Uzoho is also not getting games in Cyprus. Okoye is even in a tougher league and Peseiro has faith in him”, a backroom staff member told OwnGoalNigeria.com.
” Peseiro realized that he is battling with confidence no thanks to the lack of game time at Watford after a two year uninterrupted time as first choice of Sparta Rotterdam. He is certainly in the conversation and he will likely be back in the squad for the World Cup qualifiers. He is at Udinese for a reason”, he concluded.
Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman
