Super Eagles goalkeeper, Daniel Akpeyi, has rubbished rumour that he was into muti to man the post after he was caught on camera rubbing his hands on the ball before Eagles and Bafana Bafana of South Africa semi-final match at the just concluded Nations Cup.

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The Kaizer Chiefs goal minder had sparked rumour on social media of involvement in pre-match superstition, after he was seen stroking the ball before the match in which Nigeria put to the sword South Africa.

However, Akpeyi dismissed the claim in an interview he granted Soccer Laduma, saying:

His word, “People really believe I put juju on the match ball? That doesn’t make sense. Does juju really work in football? To me, that (juju) is nonsense because if juju really worked in football, Africa would be world champions. Most of the time in Africa, they like using juju and all of that stuff.

They should be winning the championship now and then. It doesn’t work. Now, getting back to the match ball against South Africa, it happens all over Europe,” he said.

“If a goalkeeper is using a new set of gloves, you want to get a feel of the ball. If they (gloves) grip very well, the better. But sometimes they water the pitch and the ball can skid and be slippery, so you want to feel the level of the grip of the gloves on the ball.

I’m a Christian and, so, I don’t think I’ll get myself involved in juju and even if you use it in my presence, it doesn’t work, otherwise like I said before, all those teams that uses juju, they could be scoring 10 or 15 goals in a single match and winning all games. I have seen teams using juju and they never get anywhere. It doesn’t work, so never assume that it is juju whatsoever.”