According to reports from Transfermarkt, Ajax is interested in signing Super Eagles goalkeeper Maduka Okoye from Sparta Rotterdam. Ajax goalkeeper Andre Onana was handed an extreme ban for failing a doping test in October. Onana mistakenly used his wife’s medication and was handed a 12-month suspension by the Court of Arbitration for Sport. There is a large hole in the Ajax team. Maarten Stekelenburg has been the man between the sticks for Ajax but at 38, they will be looking for a younger candidate.
“It was all swift, but it is true,” Okoye told Transfermarkt. “Ajax has phoned Sparta but not me or my agency Prime11. I haven’t talked to them directly.” Ajax boss Edwin van der Sar—one of the best goalkeepers in history—has phoned Sparta’s sporting director Henk van Stee. “I have a very close relationship with van Stee and my coach Henk Fraser and I am sure that should it become concrete with Ajax, I will be the first to find out about it,” Okoye said.
The 20-year-old has played 20 matches in the Dutch Eredivisie so far and kept 7 clean sheets De Kasteelheren. Maduka was born in Germany to a Nigerian father and a German mother. Although he had been on the Super Eagles Radar for some time, he entered the fray when Carl Ikeme quit due to illness. Daniel Akpeyi, Ikechukwu Ezenwa, and Daniel Uzoho were not enough at the last AFCON and Gernot Rohr started talking up the young keeper in 2019. Even though he has been shaky since his debut against Brazil (he was substituted as Uzoho was stretchered off due to poor landing in a friendly in Singapore), he continues to be the starting keeper for the Nigerian National team.
