Despite alleged threats from some football fans in South Africa, Super Eagles goalkeeper, Stanley Nwabali, is set to return to the country and resume action with his club, Chippa United, PUNCH Sports Extra reports.
Nwabali was impressive for Nigeria at the recently-concluded Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast, helping Nigeria to a second-place finish after losing to the hosts in the final.
En route to the final, Nwabali saved two penalty kicks as Nigeria beat South Africa on penalties in the semi-finals to book a spot in the final.
Ex-international Idah Peterside, in an interview with Channels Television a day after the win, said some fans had threatened Nwabali not to return to South Africa after the AFCON tournament.
Unfazed by the threats, the 27-year-old said he would return to his club.
“I must go back to my club, but talking about the threats, this is football,” Nwabali was quoted as saying by BluePrint.
“You can’t threaten someone because they (Bafana Bafana) also won against some other teams too. How about if those they beat decided to threaten their players, would it make sense? It’s football, I don’t think there’s anything attached to it. Maybe it was just someone writing on social media.”
He added, “It’s cool to me because I spoke to my chairman three days ago, but he didn’t say anything like all that stuff. So, he felt like ‘No, it’s cool, you can come back. I must go back to my club because they own me.”
