Ikechukwu Ezenwa

Ikechukwu Ezenwa
Personal information
Full name Ikechukwu Vincent Ezenwa[1]
Date of birth (1988-10-16) 16 October 1988
Place of birth Yenagoa, Nigeria
Height 1.81 m (5 ft 11 in)[1]
Position Goalkeeper
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2006–2008 Ocean Boys 56 (0)
2008–2011 Heartland F.C. 61 (0)
2011–2014 Sharks F.C. 45 (0)
2014–2016 Sunshine Stars 38 (0)
2016–2017 Ifeanyi Ubah F.C. 28 (0)
2017–2019 Enyimba International 4 (2)
2019 Heartland F.C. 0 (0)
2019–2023 Katsina United 11 (0)
International career
2007 Nigeria U20 3 (0)
2008 Nigeria U23 1 (0)
2015–2019 Nigeria 21 (0)
Medal record
Representing  Nigeria
Men's football
Olympic Games
2008 Beijing Team
Africa Cup of Nations
2019 Egypt
* Club domestic league appearances and goals

Ikechukwu Vincent Ezenwa Listen (born 16 October 1988) is a Nigerian former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper.

Club career

Ezenwa began his football professional career with Ocean Boys before he moved to Heartland F.C. in July 2008.[2] He moved to Ifeanyi Ubah FC in 2016.[3] He then completed a move to Enyimba International.[4]

He moved on to join Katsina United on 1 January 2019.[5]

Former Sunshine Stars Coach, Daramola Nicholas Akinsehinwa, acted as Ezenwa's trainer between the years 2013 to 2016, during his playing time with Sunshine Stars. Akinsehinwa helped Ezenwa develop his potential, which made the Nigeria Super Eagles call-up possible. Ikechukwu Ezenwa was part of the Nigeria squad at the 2014 World Cup.

International career

He was a member of the Nigeria U-23 at the 2008 Summer Olympics, featuring in the qualifier games.

He got the call up to the Nigeria national team in 2015 under the authority of coach Sunday Oliseh. Following the injury of Nigeria's first choice goalkeeper Carl Ikeme he was called up to be part of the squad in the World cup and Nations cup qualifications by Super Eagles coach Gernot Rohr and given the number 1 jersey replacing Ikeme as first choice goalkeeper of Nigeria.

Ezenwa showed some class of keeping during Nigeria's back to back matches against the ‘indomitable lions’ of Cameroon in the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers. In May 2018, he was named in Nigeria's preliminary 30-man squad for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.[6]

Career statistics

Appearances and goals by national team and year[7]
National team Year Apps Goals
Nigeria 2015 3 0
2016 3 0
2017 6 0
2018 7 0
2019 2 0
Total 21 0

References

  1. ^ a b "2018 FIFA World Cup Russia – List of Players" (PDF). FIFA.com. Fédération Internationale de Football Association. 4 June 2018. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 December 2019. Retrieved 4 June 2018.
  2. ^ [1]
  3. ^ "Ezenwa gets pay rise at IfeanyiUbah - Nigeria Premier League 2016 - Ifeanyi Ubah FC". African Football. Retrieved 14 May 2018.
  4. ^ "Ikechukwu Ezenwa thrilled with Enyimba move | Goal.com". Retrieved 7 June 2018.
  5. ^ "Super Eagles goalkeeper Ikechukwu Ezenwa joins Katsina United from Enyimba". www.pulse.ng. 21 December 2018. Retrieved 27 March 2019.
  6. ^ "Revealed: Every World Cup 2018 squad - Final 23-man lists". goal.com. Goal. 4 June 2018. Retrieved 20 April 2020.
  7. ^ "Ikechukwu Ezenwa". National Football Teams. Benjamin Strack-Zimmermann. Retrieved 23 June 2018.