Maduka Okoye reflects on costly error at 2021 AFCON

Super Eagles goalkeeper Maduka Okoye has expressed his lingering regret over the mistake that led to Nigeria’s elimination from the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) in the round of 16, as reported by Soccernet.ng.

Nigeria, under the management of Augustine Eguavoen, began the tournament in impressive fashion, defeating Egypt, Guinea Bissau, and Sudan with relative ease. This strong start fueled hopes among fans that the Super Eagles could clinch their fourth AFCON title.

However, those hopes were dashed in the next round when Nigeria faced Tunisia, a team plagued by injuries. Maduka Okoye misjudged a shot from Youssef Msakni, allowing the ball to creep past him into the net. To compound matters, Alex Iwobi received a red card just seven minutes after coming on, sparking outrage on social media.

Reflecting on the incident in an interview with Oma, Maduka Okoye admitted that the mistake still haunts him.

“At that moment, I told myself I should have done better. It pains me till today, to be honest,” Okoye said. “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.”

Since that fateful match, Okoye has not played for Nigeria, either being left out of the squad or confined to the bench. Determined to learn from his error, Okoye has focused on improving his skills over the past two years.

“I’ve been training hard, improving in the last two years because I don’t want things like that to happen again,” he said. “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.”

Okoye also discussed the emotional toll the mistake took on him, not just from the backlash on social media, but from the sense of letting down his teammates, family, and country.

“At this stage, I’m not even reading the nonsense on social media anymore. Some people still talk bad about Cristiano Ronaldo despite his achievements,” he noted.

“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.”

However, Maduka Okoye is all about healing and learning now. “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,” he said.