I cannot believe that after his scintillating performance at the world cup he failed to at the minimum land a contract in one of the big leagues in Europe. He is not getting any younger and he may have missed his opportunity to shine and define himself at club level.

Kudos to him anyway for guiding his club Hapoel Tel Aviv to the group stages of the uefa champs. league.

Whose fault is his failure to get a contract? He tried his best to perform, what more can he do?

Maybe his agent. Imagine this is the same guy who was man of the match after the game against Argentina despite the fact that we lost. This is the same Enyeama that in the 2002 world cup gave a man of the match performance against England. After the world cup all the talk was when and not if a club in one of the main leagues would snatch him up.
And yet in 2010 he is still stuck in an archaic league in Israel.
He is easily better than most of the goalies in the prem, serie a or la liga.
Why he remains at Hapoel leaves me gob smacked.

He's good no doubt about that but he can get jittery sometimes!

Seun:

Whose fault is his failure to get a contract? He tried his best to perform, what more can he do?

great answer

passin tru!!

Seun:

Whose fault is his failure to get a contract? He tried his best to perform, what more can he do?

He can do more, it's one thing for a product to be good, it's another thing for it to be marketed or sold.

Do you actually think apple make the best mp3/4 players?, or the best phones?, NOPE, but they market it well.

He needs a better marketer.

hakunajay:

He's good no doubt about that but he can get jittery sometimes!

everyone gets their jittery moments, even renowned goalies like bartez, seaman, shilton, etc.

But Enyeamas confidence have grown over the years and even his previous weaknesses like crosses, set pieces and penalty have improved.
I appreciate the fact that its more difficult for non-European goalkeepers compared to strikers to land good deals but if he blows his chance this year he may never have this opportunity in his lifetime to play in western Europe.

theres more to fooball than talent ,

Talent without luck in football takes u nowhere. He needs a bit of luck to forge ahead.

Fogman:

Talent without luck in football takes u nowhere. He needs a bit of luck to forge ahead.

true talk broda.

If richard kingson, the best goal keeper in Africa is the third choice goalie at Wigan of all places then what more Vinny Enyeama.

maybe he is not really good enough for a big club. guys, remember that consistency is a major factor in determining whether a goalie is good, so maybe big clubs feel that he is not consistent enough. I'm just suggesting a reason.

voted best GK in isreal,wat more?

He is a goalkeeper. How many are needed in a club at each given time? At the most, three.

The big clubs you are talking about already have tested and massive international goalkeepers in their kitty.

Its not that easy for give clubs to move around to get keepers its just not that easy. The number1 would be really keeping badly for the club to consider bringing another world-class/international keeper. Most times, for stability at the back, they prefer to wait it out till the keeper regains his form.Only when the loss of form runs for a considerably long time, do they move swiftly to change. You know how many years buffon, Dida, Reina, etc have been between the poles for their clubs.Even when Dida started messing up, he still remained there till recently.

Besides, have you guys thought of the possibility that maybe Enyeama prefers a place he would be guaranteed first place and not somewhere he may go to wait it out as second placed keeper? What more can he ask? He is number 1 at his club who have made it to champions league. If he moved to Manu,Chelsea, Real,Barca, Inter etc after the world cup, do you think he would have taken over the 1st spot by now?

Let him be. It gets to a point when he would be so grounded and would have delivered for a number of seasons in a row, then any manager of the 'big clubs' that you are talking about, would then have the confidence to take him on as a direct Number1 of that club.

Maybe because he is African, the big leagues (Spanish, Italy, English, Germany) would prefer their own first before anyone else. No racism issue intended but he would need to touch the clouds before the right ones come calling. Thank God he is in the champions league, if he performs and they get even a 2nd round, he would leave Isreal. For years Carlos Kameni has been consistent until recently at Espanol but no one makes any hype about him.

in the land of the blind one eye man is king. BY African standard he his very good, by European standard his just average.

The answer is simple, LUCK

okunoba:

in the land of the blind one eye man is king. BY African standard he his very good, by European standard his just average.

Begging to disagree, bro! Europeans don't play football while we play coconut, we don't have European and African version of shots! Enyeama is good, he is world-class, YES! He is simply on the wrong side of luck, unlike Kanu Nwankwo!

Well,he is going to be playing in the UEFA Champions league though.

@poster,
i think u shld get a befitting topic for your post.
for a nigerian, the first and most important thing is to find fault.
when mikel signed for chelsea, ur type were out to blame such move instead of moving through the lader.
when kanu went to west brom, many of u were out to ask why.
vincent is in a first choice goal keeper in a club playing in europe at the moment, what more do u expect from him?
will u be happy if petr cech of chelsea is replaced by enyeama?
by our standards, he is good and been where he is, u or no other one has no standard to be disappointed with him.
if someone is not disappointed with himself, who are u? how many goal keepers are in nigeria? how many of them are doing well like enyeama and why are u not disappointed with them?
dudek has been in madrid for many seasons after leaving liverpool only as a second goalkeeper to casilas and his ppl will never be disappointed with him but let a nigerian seat on the bench for 45 mins in a match, traders from different markets will come here and show how disappointed they are.
football is just like everyother business where ppl work and get paid at the end of the day so those players work where they consider ok for what they want as payments at the end of the day.
mr. poster, the earlier u stop been disappointed with ppl who are millions of miles better than u, the better for u.

okunoba:

in the land of the blind one eye man is king. BY African standard he his very good, by European standard his just average.

Rubbish talk!!

Rubbish talk indeed

davidif:

HAS ANYBODY EVER ASKED THEMSELVES WHETHER THE GUY IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH. THERE IS A POPULAR ADAGE IN FOOTBALL; YOU NEVER (EVER) SIGN A PLAYER BASED ON WORLD CUP PERFORMANCES BECAUSE ANYBODY CAN PEAK IN THE WORLD CUP OR HAVE A COUPLE OF GOOD GAMES. THE SECRET TO ASSESSING A PLAYER IS WATCHING HIM OVER THE LONG COURSE OF HIS CLUB GAMES BEFORE YOU ASSESS THE PLAYER. MAYBE THE SCOUTS HAVE SEEN SOMETHING THAT THEY DON'T LIKE IN THE GUY. DON'T LET WORLD CUP PERFORMANCES FOOL YOU PEOPLE, ANYBODY CAN SHINE IN THE WORLD CUP (EVER HEARD OF SALENKO, SCHILLACCI AND DIOUF?).

Enyeama was voted Player of the Season in Israel in 2009. How many years does it take to access a player's club performance.

okunoba:

in the land of the blind one eye man is king. BY African standard he his very good, by European standard his just average.

WORD SON. If Igor Akinfeev is still in Russia and Hugo Lloris is still in the French league then who is Enyeama? and besides, how many goalkeepers can you have at a club? max 3, and you can only have one starting and you can't easily substitute them.

soloqy,
You hit the nail on the head maybe they didn't like his consistency.

toluxa1:

Enyeama was voted Player of the Season in Israel in 2009. How many years does it take to access a player's club performance.

IN CASE YOU FORGOT, THE ISRAELI LEAGUE IS NOT EXACTLY THE BEST LEAGUE IN THE WORLD IF YOU HAVE NOT NOTICED YET.

it's a pretty difficult tin to see a black goalkeeper makin it in europe especially d premiership, i guess they r not given d same platform to compete for a shirt

We Nigerians love to engage in self deception; the truth is that ENYEAMA is an average guy who is working really hard.

Enyeama is currently in a winning league club and a big club are those who appear in the Uefa champion league and Enyeama club is currently in this champion league group stage and if luckily they win, they will become the best club in europe but currently they are among the big clubs but not the best media showing recognise country

IN CASE YOU FORGOT, THE ISRAELI LEAGUE IS NOT EXACTLY THE BEST LEAGUE IN THE WORLD IF YOU HAVE NOT NOTICED YET.

@davidif,
are u a kind of saying the best players are in the best leagues? are u aware that at any point in time, there can only be one best league in the world or europe?
is enyeama's club winning the champions league an impossibility? if it is possible, then there is a possibility of voting enyeama the best goalkeeper of the yr in europe remeber porto once did.
before the emergence of mourinho at chelsea, u and i can say things about black players and their values and today, drogba, yaya toure, kolo toure, essien, keita, diara, mikel and a host of other african players are getting their fair shares of the football values.
the truth of the matter is that even if enyeama wins the best goalkeeper in the world, nigerians must have a way to make that look stupid.