Nigeria’s football biggest talents are set to take centre stage over the course of the next five months as the Nigeria Professional Football League 2023 season kicks off on Sunday, January 8.
In every campaign there are always new stars who emerge and there are some incredibly talented players who are ready to become bonafide superstars.
Here’s an amazing player to keep your eyes on during the NPFL 23′ season…
Itodo Akor: Gombe United (Goalkeeper)
Gombe United goalie, Itodo Akor is considered to be a successful and generally high quality shotstopper in Nigeria football, and is regarded as one of the league’s finest ever goalkeepers.
Itodo Akor
With an authoritative and composing presence of about 190 centimetres (6’2″) and 84 kilograms (13 stones), Akor is a physically imposing figure in the goal area, with great reflexes, positioning, handling, and shot-stopping abilities and is known for his agility and composure in goal, as well as his ability to produce breath-taking stops, in particular after not being tested for long stretches of time.
In addition to his goalkeeping prowess, the ex Akwa United man is known in particular for his great footwork, vision, control, distribution and skill with the ball at his feet, which enables him to play the ball out on the ground or begin an attack from the back.
He is also outstanding for his goalkeeping intelligence, ability to read the game, and his speed and bravery when coming off his line to claim the ball on the ground in one v one situations, and also excells at anticipating his opponents outside his penalty area who had beaten the offside trap, and often functions as a sweeper-keeper in most of his games.
He ended last season with 12 clean sheets to his name, only four adrift the duo of Sochima Victor (Rivers United) and Kayode Bankole (Remo Stars), who kept 16 clean sheets each.
He is one of the brains behind Gombe United finishing 8th on the league table and has now been named as captain of the Savannah Scorpions going into the 2023 season of the Nigeria Professional Football League.
