Super Eagles of Nigeria goalkeeper Maduka Okoye says his mistake at the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) haunts him to date.
Recall Okoye fumbled Youssef Msakni’s strike for Tunisia against Nigeria at the AFCON 2021 round of 16, leading to the three-time African champions’ exit from the competition.
The mistake culminated in a series of events that led to netizens attacking Okoye, and to him consequently taking a break from the national team.
“At that moment, I told myself I should have done better. It pains me till today, to be honest,” the 24-year-old told OmaSports TV.
“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.
“I’ve been training hard, improving in the last two years because I don’t want things like that to happen again.
“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.”
After an impressive outing for Udinese in the 2023/24 Italian Serie A season, Okoye returned to the Super Eagles squad for the 2026 World Cup qualifiers against South Africa and Benin Republic.
The German-born goalkeeper admitted he let his teammates and country down but played down social media trolls as he continues to learn from his mistakes.
“I’m not just talking about what I read on social media, it’s more about the feeling of letting your teammates down, your family down, and letting your country down.
“At this stage, I’m not even reading the nonsense on social media anymore. Some people still talk badly about Cristiano Ronaldo despite his achievements.
“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.
“And 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 concluded.
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