Who is Maduka Okoye, The Handsome Nigeria Goalie

Maduka Okoye is a 22-year-old Nigerian professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Sparta Rotterdam, on loan from Premier League club Watford and the Nigeria national team.

He was born on 28 August 1999 in Düsseldorf, Germany to a Nigerian father and a German mother. He became more prominent after he was shortlisted in the 2021 AFCON Nations Cup by Austin  Eguavoen, the Super Eagles Coach, as part of the 28-Man Nigeria Squad.

He was the favourite player amongst Nigerian females due to his handsome looks but was blamed for his role in Nigeria’s exit at the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon.

Recall that Nigeria who had been performing incredibly well at the AFCON games suffered a 1-0 defeat to Tunisia to crash out of the AFCON tournament after Okoye failed to save Youssef Msakni’s long-range strike tow.

Club Career

Maduka Okoye debuted his professional football career in 2017 for Fortuna Düsseldorf II after playing in the youth team of Bayer Leverkusen, where he had played for 8 years.

He played for Fortuna Düsseldorf till July 2020, when signed for  Sparta Rotterdam on a free transfer. He was named Sparta’s Player of the Season, keeping 10 clean sheets in 28 league games during the 2020/21 season. On 4 August 2021, Okoye signed a contract extension until 2025.

On 8 November 2021, it was announced that Okoye had agreed to join Premier League outfit, Watford, on a five-and-a-half-year deal for an undisclosed fee. He however joined Watford on 1 January 2022 on a loan deal until the end of the 2021/22 campaign.

International Career

The former coach of the Nigerian National team   Gernot Rohr revealed his plans to invite Maduka Okoye to the Nigerian National Team before the 2018 World Cup, but the plan wasn’t a success.

He was also invited to the Nigerian U23 Team for the 2019 African U-23 Cup of Nations qualifier against Libya U-23 by Imama Amapakabo, the coach of the Nigeria U23 Team, but failed to make a debut, due to club engagement.

Prior to that, Okoye had revealed in an interview that he is willing to play for the Nigeria National team if he gets an invitation.

He made his international debut in 2019 as a substitute in a friendly match against Brazil ending in a 1 -1 draw. He was shortlisted in the 2021 AFCON Nations Cup by  Austin Eguavoen as part of the 28-Man Nigeria Squad.

In an interview with the Super Eagles Media Team via YouTube, Okoye explained his decision to represent Nigeria over Germany was because that was he chose to follow his heart.

His words: “My opinion and my advice is to follow your heart, you have to feel it, where the love is. I felt the love in Nigeria and I feel like a Naija boy, that’s why I chose Nigeria over Germany”.

“I felt great after I got my first call-up to the Super Eagles, it was a pleasure. It’s a big step for me in my football career.

“With the first call-up I had a bit of problem but after that, for the Ukraine game everything was set up and I prepared well. I couldn’t wait to get to the Super Eagles, everything went well. Thank God,” Okoye added.

Personal Life

The super eagles once revealed in an interview that he is single and Nigerian ladies are free to slide into his DM on Instagram, he also revealed that he loves his women melanin and toxic.