FIFA explains Enyeama’s low ranking

Nigerian goalkeeper, Vincent Enyeama was, in the hearts of millions of football fans across the world, one of the top goalkeepers of the World Cup. His performances between the sticks in the matches involving the Super Eagles has been attributed as the key reason why the Nigerian team was not embarrassed in South Africa, that is depending on if one doesn’t consider a draw and two losses from three games against Argentina, Greece and Korea Republic an embarrassment for a side from the world’s most populous black nation.

But the 27-year-old, who looks likely to leave Israeli league champions Hapoel Tel Aviv before the start of the new season, is not even listed among the tournament’s top ten goalkeepers in the Castrol Index as he is ranked a lowly 26th; even lower than Algeria’s Rais Bolhi, in 14th place, or Japan’s Eji Kawashima who is ranked second behind Germany’s Manuel Neuer. And the tournament’s organizers have explained why Enyeama is way down in the ranking according to the Castrol Index, which was developed in conjunction with Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger, and which uses the latest technology to objectively analyse and rank player performances.



FIFA’s explanation

“With Enyeama, part of the problem is that Nigeria went out at the group stage. As the tournament progresses, performances are rewarded more highly, since the matches tend to be more difficult. In addition, players who have not played a certain number of minutes are penalised, so players from eliminated teams will naturally drop down the rankings,” said the statement on Fifa.com. “With Enyeama, the fair comparison is to look at his ranking at the end of the group stage where he was the 22nd best goalkeeper. Maybe that is still surprising? He had made 20 saves, which was the second highest of any keeper but had conceded five goals, which was equal third worst.

So the fact he was very busy making saves meant he caught the eye but he did not keep a clean sheet. He saved 20 out of 25 shots faced, a save percentage of 80 - only the equal 14th best in the group stage which goes a long way to explaining his average ranking. With the goalkeeper ratings, we try to strip out the effect of the defence - it is not how many saves he makes but his performance once you have assessed how good or bad the defence is. This means good keepers in good teams have a chance of being top of the Castrol Index. Enyeama is an okay keeper in a team that performed disappointingly.”