#Russia2018: Hard Facts You Don’t Know About Francis Uzoho
Today on soccer hard facts, we will look at Super Eagles goalkeeper, Francis Uzoho. The tall Iroko tree as he is often called surprisingly made the Super Eagles world cup squad.
With a height of 1,96m, the Deportivo de La Coruña’s goalie is surely one of the players to watch out for in this tournament. The goalkeeper who was a backup replacement for Alampasu in the Under 17 World Cup tournament.
1. Francis Odinaka Uzoho Born in Nwangele in Imo State, Uzoho joined Qatari Aspire Academy in 2013 at age 14, He was initially a forward, but was converted into a goalkeeper after being deemed “too slow” at the age of 12.
In 2016, after impressing in a tournament at Barcelona, he joined Deportivo de La Coruña’s junior team. Age rules prevented Uzoho from signing a contract in 2016. He only became available to sign a contract with Déportivo in January 2017; shortly after signing his contract, he started to train with the first team. Promoted to the reserve team ahead of the 2017–18 season, he made his senior debut on 10 September by starting in a 3–0 Segunda División B home win against Real Madrid Castilla.
2. Uzoho made his first team La Liga debut on 15 October 2017, starting in a 0–0 away draw against SD Eibar. At the age of 18 years and 352 days, he became the youngest ever foreign goalkeeper to debut in La Liga, and the second-youngest player to appear in the league during the campaign, only behind Real Madrid’s Achraf Hakimi.
3. Uzoho represented Nigeria under-17s at the 2013 FIFA U-17 World Cup. Aged only 14, he was an immediate backup to Dele Alampasu.
4. In October 2017 Uzoho received his first call-up to the Nigerian senior squad. He made his full international debut on 14 November, replacing Daniel Akpeyi in a 4–2 friendly win against Argentina.
He was named in Nigeria’s 23-man squad for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
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