Rohr On Why German-Born GK Was Not Invited To Eagles; Akpeyi, Uzoho & Ezenwa Solidarity

Super Eagles coach Gernot Rohr has revealed that Fortuna Düsseldorf netminder Maduka Okoye would have been invited to the national team if not for injury.

The Super Eagles goalkeeping position has been an area of debate and concern following the retirement of Carl Ikeme due to health related issues and the problem has continued as the country's regular starter Francis Uzoho was largely inactive in the second half of the 2018-2019 campaign.

Although Rohr also has at his disposal Kaizer Chiefs' Daniel Akpeyi and Katsina United's Ikechukwu Ezenwa, Nigerians are still apprehensive about the quality of the two goalkeepers.

''If you know one better than the three we have, please tell me. With our scouting team we are watching all over the world and we didn't find a better one,'' Rohr said.

''There is one playing in Düsseldorf in Germany, we are watching him. He had a little injury, we could not invite him to see but we are still working on this very important department.

''Honestly today I don't know who is number one. We had the number one in the World Cup, very,very young goalkeeper, I took a big risk but he did well, and then he had a difficult situation in the club.

''He had to change, to change again to go on loan to Cyprus. He couldn't play because of administrative problems, only played two or three games.

''I sent another goalkeeper coach there to work with him for two weeks like we did before the World Cup, so we do the maximum but we are not magicians to say we have a wonderful goalkeeper like you had in the past.''

Uzoho, Akpeyi and Ezenwa have had to share the spot between the sticks since the appointment of Gernot Rohr as coach, and the German spoke about the solidarity between the three goalkeepers.

''We have to trust our three goalkeepers we have and I trust because we have one very experienced goalkeeper, Daniel Akpeyi playing in a good league in South Africa.

''We have Ezenwa who is doing well in the local league and with his spirit, I think his faithful attitude is helping so much the team.

''And we have this young goalkeeper, he is working hard in the training sessions. He made a mistake against Seychelles, he has to find again confidence, he played with the U23 like other players.

''You remember we gave Chukwueze to the U23 to help them, going to the Olympics is very important, after the loss of the first game vs Libya, we gave them Awaziem, Osimhen who scored a few goals. Also from our group Uzoho who played with them and they did it very well.

''I personally I am very grateful that these players go out of the Super Eagles and have the same motivation, same spirit with the U23, It is wonderful, you don't see this everywhere in Africa but we have the solidarity.

''Solidarity is a guarantee to have a good tournament. Also the solidarity we have between the goalkeepers, they are brothers and it is wonderful.

''One of them will play, the other ones will be supporters, so this can become the strength for us, this situation who is not really number one because we have solidarity,'' Rohr concluded.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel