William Nwadinobi "Willy" Okpara (born 7 May 1968) is a Nigerian former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who played as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

. Having started his career with ACB Lagos, he spent more than a decade with South African side

Orlando Pirates Orlando Pirates Football Club (often known as "The Buccaneers") is a South African professional football club based in the Houghton suburb of the city of Johannesburg and plays in the top-tier system of Football in South Africa known as DStv ...

Career

Born in

Lagos Lagos (Nigerian English: ; ) is the largest city in Nigeria and the second most populous city in Africa, with a population of 15.4 million as of 2015 within the city proper. Lagos was the national capital of Nigeria until December 1991 fo ...

, Okpara played for ACB Lagos from 1987 to 1989 before moving to South African side

. Okpara was the club's first choice goalkeeper from 1990 to 2002, losing his place to Congolese goalkeeper Michel Babale during 2002–03 season, then becoming an understudy to Thabang Radebe and Francis Chansa before retiring in 2005. He holds the record of Pirates' appearances with 375 matches, and is also the club's longest serving player. He was part of the 1995 CAF Champions League winning team.

International career

Okpara was Nigeria under-20's first choice goalkeeper during

1987 FIFA World Youth Championship The 1987 FIFA World Youth Championship took place in Chile from 10 to 25 October 1987. The 1987 championship was the 6th contested and won for the first time by Yugoslavia. Remarkably, in the course of the tournament the Yugoslavs defeated each of ...

, playing in all three matches as Nigeria failed to win during the group stage. He played for

Nigeria national futsal team The Nigeria national futsal team represents Nigeria in international futsal competitions and is controlled by the Futsal Commission of the Nigeria Football Federation. Nigeria have played in one edition of the Africa Futsal Cup of Nations after ...

at 1992 FIFA Futsal World Championship as an outfield player, featuring in the 5–4 loss against

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

when he was sent off. He made his debut for the Nigeria national team in 1996 and was selected for the 1998 FIFA World Cup squad.

Retirement

After his retirement, Okpara became a goalkeeping coach for Orlando Pirates.

Honours

Premier Soccer League Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier. A premier will normally be a head of governm ...

: 2000–01, 2002–03 * National Soccer League: 1994 *

Nedbank Cup The Nedbank Cup is the current name of South Africa's premier club soccer knockout tournament. While many formats have been used over the years, the tournament has always been based on the idea of giving lower league and amateur teams a chance t ...

: 1996 * MTN 8: 1993, 1996, 2000 * Castle Challenge: 1992 * CAF Champions League: 1995 * CAF Super Cup: 1996

References

External links

*
Orlando Pirates player profile - William Okpara
{{DEFAULTSORT:Okpara, William 1968 births Living people Nigerian footballers Association football goalkeepers Nigeria international footballers Nigeria under-20 international footballers 1998 FIFA World Cup players ACB Lagos F.C. players Orlando Pirates F.C. players Nigerian expatriate footballers Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in South Africa Expatriate soccer players in South Africa Association football goalkeeping coaches Futsal goalkeepers