Twenty-four years on, the wound still has not fully healed. Sunday Rotimi, now Rivers United’s goalkeepers’ coach, revisits the injury that robbed him of a place at the 2002 World Cup, reflects on a career built on league titles, and backs his current club to edge out Rangers in the NPFL run-in.
Some football regrets fade with time. Others calcify into something permanent, a wound that reopens every time the subject comes up. For Sunday Rotimi, the story of the injury that cost him a place in the Super Eagles squad for the 2002 FIFA World Cup in Korea and Japan is one of the latter. More than two decades later, the Rivers United goalkeepers’ coach speaks about it with the kind of quiet pain that tells you it still matters.
“I look back on it with pain,” Rotimi told FootballInNigeria.com.ng exclusively. “Injury came, and I was dropped by coach Festus Adegboye Onigbinde. It was a very sad and painful moment. It took me time to overcome it. But that’s life; one has to live with it.”
The context makes the loss even sharper. Rotimi was not on the fringes of the conversation. He was performing well as a home-based goalkeeper at Dolphins, had been invited to the U-17 Golden Eaglets camp, and had established himself as one of the most reliable shot-stoppers in the Nigerian league. He was building toward something. Then injury arrived at precisely the wrong moment, and the final World Cup list came out without his name on it.
A Career Built on Titles Despite the Pain
What Rotimi did with the pain is arguably more instructive than the pain itself. He went on to build a career that most Nigerian footballers would consider exceptional by any measure. As a player, he won three NPFL league titles, two with Dolphins and one with Rivers United. He also played abroad, including a spell at Hapoel Rishon LeZion and Hapoel Ashkelon in Israel, before returning to the domestic game.
Since transitioning into coaching, Rotimi has added a fourth title to his collection, lifting the NPFL trophy as goalkeepers’ coach at Rivers United. “I will always be grateful to God,” he said, accounting for a career that took real setbacks but delivered real rewards. Nigerian football fans who want to bet on the current NPFL title race can use the Bet9ja promotion code for new user offers ahead of the final four fixtures.
Injuries at Every Crucial Moment
The 2002 World Cup was not an isolated case. Rotimi acknowledged that injuries had a habit of arriving at the worst possible times throughout his career, disrupting preparation for major competitions more than once. “It feels bad that most times, at crucial moments, especially ahead of major competitions, injury would occur,” he said. “It makes me feel sad, but then that’s life, and I had to live with it.”
He earned 12 caps for the Super Eagles across his playing career, a number that might have been substantially higher had his injury timing been different. There is a version of Sunday Rotimi who played at a World Cup and came home with an international profile that opened more doors in the coaching world. That version does not exist, but the one that does has found enough fulfilment in NPFL titles and in watching the next generation of Nigerian goalkeepers develop under his guidance. New Bet9ja users can claim the Bet9ja’s YOHAIG code ahead of backing their preferred NPFL title contender. For details on the full promo offer, visit the Bet9ja promo FAQ.
Rivers United’s Title Push
Rotimi is currently in the thick of another title race. Rivers United sit two points clear of Rangers at the top of the NPFL table with four matches remaining in the 2025/2026 season. He is careful not to dismiss the challenge from their Enugu rivals, but he believes his club has a marginal edge.
“It’s a very close fight, but I think Rivers United have a slight advantage. The two teams are top sides, have character, and have their sights on the top prize. But I believe Rivers United have a slight advantage,” he said. His son David has also begun playing football, and Rotimi confirmed he would back any of his children who chose to pursue the game, proving that despite everything, football remains what he loves.
📌 Did You Know?
- The 2002 FIFA World Cup in South Korea and Japan was the first to be jointly hosted by two countries and the first held in Asia, with Nigeria reaching the Round of 16 before losing to England in a match decided by a David Beckham penalty.
- Festus Adegboye Onigbinde, the coach who dropped Rotimi from the 2002 World Cup squad, was a highly respected Nigerian football administrator who also served as technical director of the Super Eagles and held coaching roles across West Africa.
- Rivers United, formerly known as Dolphins FC, are one of the most successful clubs in Nigerian football history and have won the NPFL title multiple times, with their recent consistency making them one of the dominant forces in the modern domestic game.
- The Israeli league, where Rotimi played for Hapoel Rishon LeZion and Hapoel Ashkelon between 2004 and 2006, has historically been a destination for experienced African players looking to extend their careers in a professional European-adjacent environment.
- Home-based Nigerian players have historically found it difficult to break into the Super Eagles setup, which has long prioritised foreign-based players, making Rotimi’s 12 caps as a predominantly domestic goalkeeper a notable achievement in that context.
- The NPFL 2025/2026 season title race between Rivers United and Rangers represents one of the more compelling domestic finishes in recent years, with the two-point gap heading into the final four matches meaning every result carries decisive weight.
- Sunday Rotimi’s career arc, from NPFL goalkeeper to international to Israeli league veteran to Nigerian league coach, follows a path that several former Super Eagles players have taken as the domestic coaching infrastructure has gradually professionalised.
