Peseiro reveals who recommended Nwabili to him; why he visited South Africa instead of using Wyscout 

Jose Peseiro has confessed that Chippa United goalkeeper Stanley Nwabili was recommended to him by the Nigeria Football Federation ahead of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations. 

Nwabili is the novelty in the 25-man squad list of Peseiro heading to Ivory Coast for the AFCON as the Portuguese football tactician had never worked with him in the past. 

Nigeria were faced with a goalkeeping crisis in the months leading up to the start of the AFCON, with first choice glovesman Francis Uzoho a shadow of himself due to his inactivity at Cypriot club Omonia Nicosia. 

Hapoel Jerusalem's Adebayo Adeleye, Enyimba's Olorunleke Ojo and Bendel Insurance's Amas Obasogie lacked the experience to compete on the international stage. 

Noah Atubolu (Freiburg), Arthur Okonkwo (Arsenal) and Jonathan Rasheed ((IFK Värnamo)) were some of the names being bandied around by the local media to beef up the goalkeeping department, but Peseiro settled for Nwabili on the advice of the Nigerian Federation. 

On the inclusion of Nwabili in Nigeria's 25-man AFCON squad, Peseiro told the Super Eagles' Media Officer Babafemi Raji: "Our staff work all the time.

"I chose 41 because we observe many videos for the Wyscout performance of the players. Every week we see 40 matches or more to check all the players belonging in our big list. Our big list is not 41 but 72 - the players we observe, evaluate every time.

"Sometimes we get information from the NFF, from some people, from some coaches, from friends, from NFF staff. Some players we observe them like the case of Nwabili, we received this information from NFF."

Peseiro went on to reveal that it was difficult to assess Nwabili and he had to travel to Port Elizabeth to monitor the goalkeeper at close quaters because South Africa's DStv Premiership is not among the leagues being covered by football scouting and match analysis company Wyscout.

"I tried to observe him in the video, not easy because Wyscout is the platform we use for videos, the South African League is not included there. They sent us some videos in the South African league, I asked the NFF President to go there.

"I was there in South Africa for four days to speak with him.  I spoke with him, the coach, spoke with a lot of people. 

"I watched the training and one match. After evaluation we decided to put him in the list because we believe in him. He showed good quality, good performance, good capacity. 

"Now I hope he shows in Super Eagles the same capacity, the same quality, the same performance because it's different to play in the national team than to play in the club."

It's correct that Nwabili has excelled at Chippa United in the current season with seven clean sheets from fifteen matches in the South African top-flight but he did not cover himself in glory in his only appearance for the national team as he conceded four goals in a friendly versus Mexico. 

Ifeanyi Emmanuel 

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