Eagles must qualify for Nations Cup –Enyeama

Nigeria’s Footballer of the Year, Vincent Enyeama, is already looking forward to the Super Eagles qualification for the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations championship to be co-hosted by Gabon and Equatorial Guinea after receiving his AIT Award on Tuesday in Port Harcourt.

Elated Enyeama who, arrived late to the venue, Hotel Presidential, for the award ceremony, said he’s determined to see Nigeria qualify for the Nations Cup and the award he just received would ginger him to put up his best for the nation.
“I never expected this award but I thank God I’m honoured.

It’s a morale booster to my career because I always give out my best. I tried all I could for Nigeria during the last World Cup in South Africa but it wasn’t enough to take us beyond the first round. The whole world watched all our matches. We all tried our best. Everybody in the team contributed to this award,”Enyeama said shortly after receiving the award.

The Israel-based goaltender, however revealed why he cried in one of Nigeria’s group matches at the World Cup: I knew that we were almost out of the competition and I was receiving awards in our matches. I just thought there was no justification for that because I’m at the World Cup to see my country play up to the finals of the competition”.

On Nigeria’s quest for the Nations Cup ticket, he urged his team mates to take all the qualifying matches seriously. He said with hard work and dedication, Eagles would scale through and make the best out of the competition. Enyeama was selected for the 2002 World Cup to assist Ike Shorunmu.

He only played one match in the 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 second 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.