Watford beat Southampton, Crystal Palace, Burnley to signature of Super Eagles goalkeeper

Published: November 10, 2021

Maduka Okoye has revealed that several teams including three from the Premier League were interested in his signature before he agreed terms with Watford.

The Super Eagles glovesman claims that his agent also held talks with Southampton, Burnley, Crystal Palace and two clubs from France.

Sparta Rotterdam have agreed to sell the goalkeeper to Watford for a fee of seven million euros but he will not be leaving the Eredivisie club immediately or during the January transfer window but will be moving to the Hornets in the summer of 2022.

A day after keeping his first clean sheet of the season against Willem II, Okoye signed a five-and-a-half-year contract at Watford with effect from January 1, 2022 following a successful medical examination in England.

Though the Nigerian has ambitions of playing in the Premier League, it is not a forgone conclusion that he will make his English top-flight debut next season as the Hornets sit in seventeenth position eleven matches into the season.

"I believe in the quality of the team, I pray and hope they stay in it. It should work with this trainer (Claudio Ranieri), " Okoye said to Transfermarkt via Voetbal International.

"My management had been in contact with several clubs since the beginning of this year: Southampton, Burnley and Crystal Palace were also after me and were in talks with my management."

Okoye has reported for international duty in Morocco ahead of Nigeria's upcoming 2022 World Cup qualifying match against Liberia.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel

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