Super Eagles goalkeeper, Maduka Okoye has apologized publicly for his mistake which caused the team to be eliminated from the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON).
After making a mistake that resulted in the Eagles’ first loss in that competition, Okoye who now plays for an Italian club, Udinese claimed he had trouble sleeping for several nights.
The Super Eagles were highly promising and clear favourites to win the tournament after winning all three group matches.
However, the biggest surprise occurred during the elimination stages when Youssef Msakni of Tunisia struck a shot that Okoye could not stop from going into the net outside the penalty area.
Nigerians were devastated by their elimination, particularly as Tunisia had just made it out of the group rounds and was among the top third teams.
Okoye, who moved from English Championship side Watford to Udinese, said in an interview with OmaSports TV that the ache is still present in his head.
He said; “At that moment, I told myself I should have done better. It pains me till today, to be honest.
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“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.
“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 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 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.” The goalkeeper noted.
