Meet Chukwuebuka Nwokoecha ,sensational Heartland Goalie and one time striker who spoke to Salient Times Newspaper Esther Egbe recently,he shared his story on how he became a goalie and more.
My name is Chukwuebuka Nwokoecha,I am working with good keeper with HeartLand FC .I came from a family of nine plus my mummy and Daddy, I lost two of my siblings, I am the last child of the family. I will say my experience as a Goalkeeper hasn’t been easy, because I played one of the most important roles in the field of play. You know as human we learn everyday,so we keep having more experiences, I developed my skills by working hard and playing in the field something as a striker to build my confidence.
I was a striker when i started playing Football, but along the line, I was converted to a Goalkeeper, after a game I Kept my team goalkeepers didn’t come, that was how I started Keeping.
My most challenging game as a Keeper was Nasarawa and Plateau United, I past out in the game, but I was giving a life support and I came back, only for me to keep fighting in the game because I was trained never to give up by my coach Emeka Amadi Mfr.
My training regimen sometimes is not always that hard, because I work on match like training, I always focus on my footwork because it really helps me.
Working with my coaches are simple ,because I have the best coaches all we do is just to listen to our coaches and plan .I always communicate with my team mate which makes it more easy for me.
Mental preparation play a high role in all of my games,because it helps me a lot and that is where the focus and the composenees comes.
For me I will say it happens unexpected and i am always ready to face the ball, because going into the game I have one thing I tell myself, there is that dangerous ball that is always going to come, so that alone helps me to be alert.
I will always tell people who care to listen that communication is very important as a keeper.You also need to play with your foot and courting of ball across .this three points are important in the role of a goalie. For me before a game I try on my own to see how the key players shoot is there last game
My role in as a leader in my team is always to push my team mate when we are down, I communicate with my leg so all can understand, because in a game everyone is aggressive,so I always communicate with them with wisdom.
All I do is communicating with them from the first minute of the game to the last minute of the game.
My advice to upcoming goalie is the first love God, secondly ,have this mentality of never giving up and working harder, even if no one is seeing you. Even if you have no one to support you, been left alone when things were hard, but I overcame all this when I put all my focus on God and I worked harder and keep believing.
It has been a wonderful journey working with different coaches, because it helps a lot for me to develop quickly, I have really learnt a lot from them.
My goals is to become a successful Goalie and to represent my Nation again like I did with the U-17 National Team.
