{"id":16591,"date":"2026-11-13T07:00:54","date_gmt":"2026-11-13T07:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/13\/afcon-2027q-chelle-defends-okoyes-exclusion-for-tanzania-double-header\/"},"modified":"2026-11-13T07:00:54","modified_gmt":"2026-11-13T07:00:54","slug":"afcon-2027q-chelle-defends-okoyes-exclusion-for-tanzania-double-header","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/13\/afcon-2027q-chelle-defends-okoyes-exclusion-for-tanzania-double-header\/","title":{"rendered":"AFCON 2027Q: Chelle Defends Okoye&#8217;s Exclusion For Tanzania Double-Header"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Super Eagles head coach \u00c9ric Chelle has defended his decision to leave Udinese goalkeeper Maduka Okoye out of his squad for the double-header against Tanzania in the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.<\/p>\n<p>Okoye was a notable omission from the squad announced for the two-legged encounter against the Taifa Stars.<\/p>\n<h3>Chelle Speaks On Okoye\u2019s Omission<\/h3>\n<p>Speaking to journalists ahead of Friday\u2019s Matchday Three clash at the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium in Uyo, Chelle stressed that the goalkeeper remains part of the national team setup, insisting that his exclusion was purely a matter of selection.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read Also:<a href=\"https:\/\/www.completesports.com\/afcon-2027q-super-eagles-must-work-hard-to-overcome-tanzania-chelle\/\">AFCON 2027Q: Super Eagles Must Work Hard To Overcome Tanzania \u2013 Chelle<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cMaduka Okoye is still part of the national team, but I made my choice,\u201d Chelle said during the pre-match press conference.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"csa1x-widget csbw-odds-card\" aria-label=\"Match odds\">\n<p><label class=\"csbw-oddschip\"><span class=\"csbw-oddsbar__label\">Show odds<\/span><button class=\"csbw-oddsswitch\" type=\"button\" role=\"switch\" aria-checked=\"false\" aria-label=\"Show odds\" data-csbw-global=\"1\"><i aria-hidden=\"true\"\/><\/button><\/label><\/p>\n<div class=\"csa1x-actions\">\n<details class=\"csa1x-tipster-details csbw-article-tips\">\n<summary class=\"csa1x-tipster-toggle\">Match prediction<\/summary>\n<\/details>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cThe national team is not closed to him or to other players.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy choice was based on what you do on the pitch and around the pitch. You need to have a good position in the group. How do you feel in the group? How do you feel when you\u2019re in that group? Everything on and around the pitch matters.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter that, I had my tactical thinking, and I made the best choice for the team.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>By Adeboye Amosu <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Source: <\/p>\n<div class=\"nSourse\">Complete Sports<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Super Eagles head coach \u00c9ric Chelle has defended his decision to leave Udinese goalkeeper Maduka Okoye out of his squad for the double-header against Tanzania in the 2027 Africa Cup&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16592,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16591\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}