The aim of this post is not to ridicule or take snipes at these goalkeepers, but instead maybe to educate, theorise and understand why this is the case. This theory may be used at Universities throughout the world in years to come - I wouldn't bet on it though!!
My theory is simple, African goalkeepers have been matured with an ideology of Distance over Direction. This case study will elaborate on examples of this theory being put into practice...
Case 1: Diving and making saves - We all know that making saves are effectively what a Goalkeeper's main job is (Scott Carson may disagree). But what has always confused me is to why African goalkeepers will purposely get their positioning wrong, just to make sure they have to dive the maximum length possible to make the save! Look at this clip of the comedic Richard Kingson in training, and ask yourself "does he need to jump this high/far?" Just save it mate!! (i'm not even going to get started in the other business that Richard gets up to.)
Case 2: Goal Kicks - when it comes to kicking, it is an area that is becoming more and more essential for top goalkeepers. Keeper such as Reina, Van Der Sar, Robinson, Foster and Hart are valuable assets to their team due to their ability to zip the ball to a player of their choice effortlessly. The African goalkeepers have not quite mastered this skill, with them being unable to pick out a player or area - but are able to smash the ball ridiculously far!! The classic example of this is South Africa's Itumeleng Khune, who's length of drop kick defies belief! I have searched long and hard for this, but YouTube does not have any evidence - which is very disappointing! Just take my word for it.
Case 3 - Form - Once the game has kicked off, an African goalkeeper is either going one way or the other - and will never just take the safe middle road. This means they are either going to have an absolute worldy, or an absolute nightmare!! Everyone knows that the best goalkeepers are those that make very few errors - the Africans do not know this. For example, I bring you Vincent Enyeama. The 2010 World Cup stared with a bang for Nigeria's number one, with him producing goalkeeping heroics to keep Argentina to just the one goal. Big clubs were linked with Enyeama, to which I was very amused. This game was forgotten soon after however when a Vincent Enyeama catastrophe eliminated the Nigeria Super Eagles from the World Cup - we all knew it was coming. Evidence below.
Case 4: Banter - We all know that all footballers like a laugh, and who wouldn't! But its very rare that you see an African goalkeeper coming out as one of the key figures in the changing room, the joker of the pack if you may. Charles Itandje (and he is Cameroonian - not French) tried to change this, and get involved in some harmless banter. Good on you Charles! Unfortunately Charles went the whole distance, yet wrong direction by choosing to do it at the Hillsbrough Disaster anniversary - prompting his swift exit from the club. Evidence below: Silly Silly Boy Charles.
I have to go to work now, so am unable to expand on this article as much as I would like to. I appreciate this is a controversial subject.....fire your criticisms at will!!
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