Since 2002, Vincent Enyeama has been playing for the senior national team of Nigeria, the Super Eagles. He currently plays for Lille OSC of France who he signed for in June 2011.
Vincent Enyeama
He was selected for the 2002 World Cup as a cover for Ike Shorunmu, and only played one match in that tournament, keeping a clean sheet against England, and took 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 Nations Cup, and indeed every Nations Cup till 2013, except for the 2008 edition in Ghana where he lost his position to Austin Ejide.
At the 2006 Nations Cup, he stopped three penalties in the quarter-final against Tunisia, but could not prevent a loss to Cote d’Ivoire in the semi-final.
He turned out the hero after saving Thomas Nyirenda’s spot-kick. 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.
He 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 game for the Super Eagles, made six fine saves, four of them from Lionel Messi, and was the major reason Nigeria almost played a draw against the two-time world champions.
Despite the loss, he was named Man of the Match and World Player of the Week by Goal.com. Argentine coach, Diego Maradona, praised him as the reason Messi was not able to shine.
He was called up to Nigeria’s 23-man squad for the 2013 Nations Cup.
As acting captain (standing in for Joseph Yobo who stayed on the bench for most of the competition), Enyeama led Nigeria to her third continental victory.
He was named to the team of the tournament as first choice goalkeeper, alongside four other Nigerian players in various positions.
During the just-concluded 2013/14 Ligue 1 season, club manager, Rene Girard, picked Enyeama as his first choice goalkeeper ahead of Steeve Elana, who had been the first choice goalkeeper when Rudi Garcia was the club manager.
With the help of his two centre backs, Marko Basa and Simon Kjaer, Enyeama kept 11 consecutive clean sheets in Ligue 1 matches during the first half of the 2013/14 season.
On December 8, 2013, he finally conceded a goal after playing 1,062 minutes of Ligue 1 football in an away match against Bordeaux, during which he was beaten by Landry N’Guemo’s deflected strike in the 27th minute.
He thus came within 114 minutes of equalling Gaetan Huard’s Division 1 or Ligue 1 goalkeeping record, set in 1993, of playing 1,176 minutes without conceding a goal.
With his award as the Best African Player in Ligue 1 for the 2013/14 season, Enyeama’s wealth of experience is expected to take the Super Eagles far in Group F and also in the competition in general.
