Stanley Nwabili: The safe hands behind Nigeria's run to the Africa Cup of Nations final

In the first week of December, the manager of Nigeria, Jose Peseiro, travelled to the southern tip of Africa. It was high summer in Gqeberha, or Port Elizabeth as it used to be known, with the coastal city looking forward to its tourist season.

Peseiro was there to solve a crisis. Many Nigerians would call it a chronic one: the lack of a reliable, big-match-ready goalkeeper for the national team, a live issue since the 2015 retirement of Vincent Enyeama, a record-breaker and inspiration through over 100 caps.

In Peseiro’s rear-view mirror were high-profile errors that marked the Super Eagles in the period immediately before he was appointed as coach.

There was the long, speculative shot that bounced up off the outstretched arm of keeper Maduka Okoye and into the Nigerian goal in the last 16 of the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations, gifting Tunisia victory. There was the long, speculative drive that slid underneath Francis Uzoho’s body two months later, granting Ghana a place at the Qatar World Cup at Nigeria’s expense.

Peseiro had flown to Gqeberha to meet Stanley Nwabili and watch him wearing the gloves for Chippa United, currently in the lower reaches of South Africa’s Premier League, against Golden Arrows.

No glamour fixture this, and a scouting mission that looked a little offbeat, even desperate, just a month ahead of the Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast for which Peseiro was making his plans. Nwabili, 27, had a single cap to his name, from a friendly two-and-a-half-years earlier, a 4-0 Super Eagles defeat to Mexico.

Peseiro introduced himself to Nwabili and watched him keep a clean sheet against Golden Arrows, a 2-0 victory that interrupted an eight-match sequence of Chippa United games without a win. The coach liked what he