The 2005 U-20 World Cup silver-winning goalkeeper, Ambrose Vanzekin, has revealed why he always used his Rosary while keeping club and country.
Vanzekin, who is currently the goalkeepers’ trainer of Nigeria Professional Football League, NPFL side Bendel Insurance, said as a Catholic, he believes so much in the rosary and always put it in his goalposts.
He disclosed this during an interview with The PUNCH.
The 36-year-old added that he always goes back to where he put his Rosary and kisses it each time opponents failed to score against him.
You always had a rosary on the field. Do you believe so much in prayers over ability?
“I am a Catholic, so I believe so much in the rosary. I always put it in my goalposts. Each time opponents tried to score against us and they couldn’t, I always go back to where I put it and kiss it. I remember during one of our matches, one of the fans entered the pitch and I had to run to the referee. So, the guy was at my goal post, looking for my rosary but he couldn’t find it even right in his front. It was like a miracle.:
Lionel Messi scored two penalties against you in the final of the 2005 U-20 World Cup…
(Cuts in) It was so easy and I think if he played 10 against me that night, he would have scored because when he was coming to play, he wasn’t running. He watched me and observed where I would go before playing the ball. So, it was difficult for me to decide where to go to.
Aside from those penalty incidents, I wasn’t really in awe about Messi, even when we met three years later at the Olympics. When we shook hands, I told him we will meet again in the final and we did.
How about the Angel Di Maria goal against you during the final of the 2002 Olympics?
I read a lot of people saying I should have stayed or rushed out. But what I wanted to do was to slow him down to see whether he would try to keep the ball and dribble me and, in the process, maybe one or two players would have covered up for me. I wasn’t thinking he would loop the ball over me straight away. It was a very painful goal and I felt that if we had won the Olympics, some things would have changed about my career.
Who was the toughest attacker you faced?
Di Maria scored a very clever goal against me, but Messi is still the best player I’ve faced. I don’t know how to describe that guy. He is just fantastic.
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