Super Eagles’ goalkeeper, Francis Odinaka Uzoho has sealed a full transfer to APOEL Nicosia of Cyprus, while his senior compatriot and former national team attacker, Victor Obinna Nsofor has taken another daring step in his desire to get a resurgence of his once-buzzing career with a deal in the same least fancied country.
Megasportsarena.com reports that Uzoho had been on loan from Deportivo La Coruna of Spain at APOEL’s fellow-city side, Omonia Nicosia, after failing to succeed in a similar deal with another of their domestic rivals, Anorthosis Famagusta.
The youthful shot-stopper will now aim for a better run than the injury-blighted spell he started with last season; while Nsofor will seek to work harder in order to make the best of yet another tentative deal in the twilight of his career.
After failing to get back on track with clubs in South Africa and Belgium of recent, Nsofor is now hoping to get himself back into the limelight with a deal in the tiny Mediterranean island nation of Cyprus, where he expects to continue his career before finally hanging his boots.
The former Kwara United of Ilorin and Enyimba of Aba winger-cum-striker is already in advanced talks with a top club in the Cypriot First Division, with a view towards sealing a summer transfer deal through his agent, Tekin Birinci.
Incidentally, the man Nsofor is counting on to mace the deal come through is a native of Cyprus and he is the same intermediary that brokered an agreement that recently took former fellow-2005 under-20 national team star, Taye Ismaila Taiwo to another top club in the country.
Nsofor could now be on his way towards joining forces with Taiwo at Doxa Katokopias, as he is eager to play alongside his former Super Eagles and Flying Eagles teammate in Cyprus; as they were both in Nigeria’s 2005 U20 Africa Cup of Nations winning squad.
While Taiwo went on to emerge third best player at the 2005 FIFA U-20 World Cup, behind Lionel Messi and John Mikel Obi, Nsofor was dropped from the competition in which Nigeria placed second behind Argentina, but he stormed back to relevance for club and country.
He went on to star for Nacional of Brazil, Inter Milan and Chievo Verona of Italy, West Ham United of England, Malaga of Spain, Lokomotiv Moscow of Russia as well as MSV Duisburg and Darmstadt 98 of Germany, but he is currently clubless, after parting company with Cape Town City FC of South Africa in 2018.
He will now aim to replicate a semblance of the form that saw him star in the Italian Serie A, English Premier League, German Bundesliga and Spanish LaLiga, as well as played for Nigeria at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, after winning silver with the under-23 squad at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China.
On the other hand 21-year-old Uzoho has left Deportivo to continue his career with the most successful club in Cyprus, as APOEL have completed his signing on a three-year deal from La Coruna; following an earlier stay with Omonia Nicosia.
He earlier cut short a similar loan deal in the Spanish Segunda division with Elche, where he played seven matches before moving to Cyprus to seek first-team football at Anorthosis, with which he won an appeal after he was fined €1,000 and handed a one-game ban by the FA.
He came under the hammer of Cyprus Football Association for submitting an invalid medical certificate ahead of his league debut, while Anorthosis were deducted nine points, after which he continued the 2019/20 season with Omonia, but his stint at the club was plagued an injury he suffered on national team duty eight months ago.
Uzoho started his European career at Deportivo in 2017, after he was scouted while in action for Aspire Academy at a tournament in Barcelona and he featured prominently for the Spanish club’s reserve team that year but struggled to break into the first-team even though he made two La Liga appearances, against Eibar and Girona, in 2017/18.
The young keeper, who suffered a ligament injury during Nigeria’s international friendly against Brazil in Singapore last October, which forced him to go under the knife for treatment has spent the last 18 months in Cyprus, penned a permanent contract that will keep him with the Legend until May 2023.
APOEL will be participating in the 2020-21 Europa League first qualifying round after they finished third on the league table before the Cypriot First Division was declared null and void because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Nicosia-based club stated: “The company APOEL Football (public) Ltd announces the conclusion of an agreement with Real Club Deportivo de La Coruña for the acquisition of Francis Odinaka Uzoho.
“The co-operation between APOEL and Uzoho will last for three years until May 2023. We welcome Francis to APOEL and wish him to celebrate titles and European successes with the blue and yellow jersey.”
