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Vincent Enyeama

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Vincent Enyeama
Personal information
Full name Vincent Enyeama
Height 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)[1]
Position(s) Goalkeeper
Team information
Current team
 Lille
Number 16
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1999–2000 Ibom Stars 56 (1)
2001–2004 Enyimba 100 (10)
2005 Iwuanyanwu Nationale 36 (0)
2005–2007 Bnei Yehuda 56 (0)
2007–2011 Hapoel Tel Aviv 113 (8)
2011– Lille 0 (0)
International career‡
2002– Nigeria 58 (1)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 15 May 2010
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 20 February 2010

Vincent Enyeama (born 29 August 1982) is a Nigerian football goalkeeper. Since 2002, he has played for the national team of Nigeria. He currently plays for Lille, who he signed for in June 2011. [2]

Club career

During his spell with Enyimba he won the CAF Champions League twice, with one noteworthy mention: He was always substituted before penalty shootouts.

"I don't know why I was substituted before penalties, but it worked," he said in an interview back in 2006. "In Israel I stopped many penalties and now everyone knows that I can handle penalties." After three seasons with Enyimba and one with FC Heartland, Enyeama moved to a minor club in Israel, Bnei Yehuda Tel Aviv. He had a fantastic first season, showing amazing physical and athletic skills. In his first season with Bnei Yehuda, the team qualified for the final of the Israel State Cup and achieved fourth place in the Israeli Premier League, which qualified the team for the 2006 UEFA Cup. Enyeama has played for Hapoel Tel Aviv since 2007. Hapoel Tel Aviv endured a poor season in 2007/2008, but Enyeama just kept on improving. He proved to be a real leader helping the team to avoid relegation and reach the state cup final. This included an emotional letter he wrote to his fellow players, encouraging them to fight together for the club. Slowly he started to feel that he belonged to the club, Enyeama has been performing extremely well in recent seasons, showing steady improvement from year to year. On 18 August 2010 he scored his first goal of the 2010-11 season with a penalty against Red Bull Salzburg in the Champions League qualifiers. In June 2011 he moved to French side Lille for an undisclosed fee on a three year contract.[3]

International career

Enyeama was selected for the 2002 World Cup as a cover for Ike Shorunmu. He only played one match in that tournament, keeping a clean sheet against England, and has since taken over the spot after Shorunmu's international retirement. Since then he has been the first-choice goalkeeper for the national team, playing in the 2004 African Cup of Nations and 2006 African Cup of Nations. In the 2010 African Cup of Nations, Enyeama also had a good tournament with Nigeria in the 2006 CAN; he stopped three penalties in the quarter-final against Tunisia, but could not prevent a loss to Côte d'Ivoire in the semi-final. Goalkeeper Enyeama turned out the hero for the Nigerians as he saved Thomas Nyirenda’s spot kick after both teams had scored their previous three kicks. He put his own kick past his opposite number Mweene in a battle of the goalkeepers, after Mweene had scored his seconds earlier, to set up a semi-final clash with Ghana, which Nigeria lost 1-0 only to end up settling for the third place by beating Algeria by a slim 1-0 victory margin[4]

Vincent Enyeama justified claims as one of the best shot-stoppers in football at the moment, with a defiant display to restrict Argentina to a 1-0 win in their Group B 2010 FIFA World Cup match. Enyeama, who was playing his 56th international for the Super Eagles, made six fine saves, four of them from Lionel Messi, and was the major reason for Nigeria coming so close to almost pinching a draw against the two-time world champions. Despite the loss, he was named Man of the Match and Goal.com World Player Of The Week. Argentine coach Maradona praised him as the reason Lio Messi was not able to score a goal.

Car Accident

In 2004 Enyeama was involved in a car accident in Uyo, south eastern Nigeria, in which two motorcycle passengers were killed, and the driver of the car which Enyeama was in was left in a critical condition. Despite the severity of the accident Enyeama only came out with bruises as the car somersaulted twice as it swerved to avoid a motorbike.[5]

Honours

Individual

References

  1. ^ http://www.national-football-teams.com/v2/player.php?id=4953
  2. ^ Israeli football association
  3. ^ "Nigeria's number one joins French champions Lille". BBC Sport. 30 June 2011. Retrieved 30 June 2011.
  4. ^ "Zambia 0-0 Nigeria (Nigeria win 5-4 on penalties)". BBC Sport. 2010-01-25. Retrieved 2010-01-26.
  5. ^ "Enyeama escapes fatal crash". BBC News. 19 October 2004.


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