By Daily Sports on April 21, 2020

Former Nigeria goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama, who has not played competitive football since 2018, has told ESPN that his career is not over yet, and he is open to the right offer.

Enyeama has not played since leaving Lille in August 2018, when a potential move to Dijon fell through at the last minute, but he remains determined still to wring out a few more years from his 37-year-old body before calling it a day.

“If I have the right project, yeah, I will get back on the field,” he told ESPN. “I am looking at projects that will help me get to the next stage and pursue the things I want to do. It is not about just football.

“It was a choice of staying with the family and pursuing a future. That is what has kept me in France. The opportunity I had with Dijon did not work out. The details were not good. I don't like suffering and smiling.”

There have been reports about him joining South African giants Orlando Pirates or Kaizer Chiefs, though he told ESPN that he was more answering a theoretical question from a reporter than saying there had been discussions.

He was asked whether he’d move to Johannesburg if the right offer came along: “He [the reporter] asked if I would be willing to play in Africa, especially in SA. He mentioned some clubs, Joburg clubs. I told him why not, if the details are ok.”

While waiting for the right offer to come along, the former Enyimba man says he is in the process of grooming a new generation of goalkeepers to solve Nigeria’s woes in that position.

He explained: “I have plans with the governor of my state (Akwa Ibom) to raise an academy for the people. I have a few goalkeepers I am training already. I want to give back, to raise clean sheet machines.”

The inspiration for the project comes from the progress he made in his career when he spent about three weeks training at Bolton Wanderers in the early 2000s.

Enyeama said: “I was a very good goalkeeper before I went to train with Bolton, but the two or three weeks I spent at Bolton gave me a different style of goalkeeping and opened my eyes.

“The goalkeeper trainer then, Fred Barber, told me things I needed to change. When I started doing the things he told me, I unlocked different levels to my game.

“I started using those methods and my game really changed. It is those secrets that I want to impart to my students.”

Bolton gave him a taste of what English football was like, but for some reason, the deal never happened and Enyeama remains unsure why: “I am still wondering why I didn’t sign.

“It was a trial that went so well. They even told me I was going to get jersey number 35. All that was left was just to do the medicals.

“I was supposed to be number three, because Bolton had two goalkeepers already, with Jussi Jaaskelainen as number one.

“But I don’t regret it because it gave me the opportunity to go to Israel. I am so happy that I went to Israel because it opened doors for me.” (ESPN)

•PHOTO: Vincent Enyeama 

Source Daily Sports

Posted April 21, 2020

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