Grapevine

Goalkeepers do more than keep ball out of goal – Rufai

One thing I remember with fondness now during my time with the Super Eagles would be when I would shout to my attackers upfront. You would have about 40 to 50 meters between you, but I would still have to scream to Samson Siasia and co., calling them into positions. This is probably a part of goalkeeping that most people don’t know; aside from keeping the ball out of the net, we had to keep our attackers on their toes so they don’t get distracted because we can see the whole pitch and they cannot.

How did the iconic teams you played with overcome some very tough tests against opponents?

Football has its ups and downs; just like the popular song by Kenny Rogers, there are challenges in every aspect of life, and so in football. The challenges I had gone through in football and collectively with the Super Eagles are vast. In times of difficulty, to achieve success, we go through pain. Coaches will tell us this is how we are going to train, and sometimes the training sessions are so tedious. Sometimes, you go through these sessions, only for you to come out for a match, and you hope that this is going to be a successful match and you are going to win, but you find challenges on the pitch as well; you find your opponent is taking you tit for tat, taking you every minute, every space, and in every minute of the game. You find it difficult to break through even with the tactical instructions you have gotten from your manager, who for us then was Clemens Westerhof. You will see we still found it a bit difficult, but later on, we broke through and achieved success, and that is something you get from resilience.

Can you tell us one of these challenging moments in your career?

I have had a number of challenges as an individual. There was a time in my career when I signed a contract with a European club, Lokeren, only for me to be released to come and play for Nigeria, which now caused problems. On coming to play for the Super Eagles, the agreement in the contract stated that I should be back in Belgium in 24 hours, and after the match I had with the Eagles, the protocol department of the Nigeria Football Federation could not meet up due to some challenges, and I could not fly back to Belgium. This made me lose my No. 1 jersey for the club, and then since people back home did not understand, a lot of rumours started flying around. Some people in Nigeria started saying Peter Rufai is no longer playing, so for that reason, we should not call him to the national team.