Shorunmu moves to ‘fix’ Eagles’ goalkeeping problem

• To recruit new ones from NPFL matches
Super Eagles goalkeepers’ trainer, Ike Shorunmu, is set to tour various stadia, where the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) matches will hold to pick eligible goal stoppers to fight for shirt in the national team.

Shorunmu told The Guardian that his desire is to ensure that more goalkeepers in the domestic league get opportunity to compete alongside their foreign counterparts for the No.1 shirt in the Super Eagles.

“The transformation process of the Super Eagles continues, and as the goalkeepers trainer, I have a huge role to play,” he stated.

Shorunmu assured that the goalkeeping department would take a better shape.
He, however, urged football-loving Nigerians to stop castigating the Super Eagles based on their past mistakes.

“The team needs the support and encouragement of every Nigerian to excel. When the league starts on January 8, I will begin the search for more domestic goalkeepers from the NPFL to be invited to the Super Eagles. I don’t understand why some people keep saying that domestic goalkeepers are not respected in the national team.

“The league has not started, and you don’t expect a coach to invite a goalkeeper from the NPFL, who has not been active to the national team. It doesn’t work that way. Nigeria league has quality goalkeepers, and my mission is to select the best and give them equal opportunity to fight for shirt with their foreign counterparts.”

Shorunmu continues: “I am happy the NPFL league will kick off soon. This will afford me the opportunity to go round the centres and see the performance of keepers in various clubs to be penciled down for a place in the national team.”

The Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL), had fixed January 8 as commencement date of the 2022/23 season. The league will be in abridged format of two groups of 10 clubs in Group A and Group B.