{"id":444086,"date":"2011-06-20T06:33:08","date_gmt":"2011-06-20T06:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/06\/20\/nigeriasouth-africa-okpako-seals-two-year-sundowns-deal\/"},"modified":"2011-06-20T06:33:08","modified_gmt":"2011-06-20T06:33:08","slug":"nigeriasouth-africa-okpako-seals-two-year-sundowns-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/20\/nigeriasouth-africa-okpako-seals-two-year-sundowns-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigeria\/South Africa: Okpako Seals Two-Year Sundowns Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"<div readability=\"26.9045584046\">\n<hr class=\"thin clear\" \/>\n<hr class=\"thin clear\" \/>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.champion.com.ng\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/allafrica.com\/img\/static\/publishers\/minibanners\/dailychampion180.jpg\" alt=\"Daily Champion (Lagos)\" title=\"Visit Daily Champion (Lagos)\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>17 June 2011<\/p>\n<hr class=\"thin clear\" \/>\n<p>Former Kano Pillars midfielder Solomon Okpako has signed a two-year contract with top South African club Mamelodi Sundowns.<\/p>\n<p>Sundowns, known as &#8216;The Brazilians&#8217;, staged a major transfer coup by grabbing the free agent, who was also wanted by several European clubs like OGC Nice in France, Dutch side VVV Venlo as well as fellow South Africans Supersport United.<\/p>\n<p>Champion Sports scooped that the highly-rated Okpako signed the dotted lines in Benin City Wednesday night with an official of the South African club.<\/p>\n<p>Okpako, 21, who is expected to play a starring role in Saturday&#8217;s Olympic qualifier against Tanzania, is a versatile player who could play either as a defensive or attacking midfielder. He is skilful, very strong in the tackle and packs a powerful shot.<\/p>\n<p>He led Nigeria&#8217;s &#8216;B&#8217; team to win the WAFU Nations Cup last year and he has also featured for the country&#8217;s Under-20 team.<\/p>\n<p>He was a very influential member of the Kano Pillars side that reached the last four of the CAF Champions League two years ago.<\/p>\n<p>Last year, he parted company with his Greek club Panionios.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<fieldset>\n<legend align=\"center\"><strong>More News on allAfrica.com<\/strong><\/legend>\n<\/fieldset>\n<p>AllAfrica &#8211; All the Time<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p>View the original here:<br \/>\n<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/allafrica.com\/stories\/201106200098.html\" title=\"Nigeria\/South Africa: Okpako Seals Two-Year Sundowns Deal\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nigeria\/South Africa: Okpako Seals Two-Year Sundowns Deal<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> 17 June 2011 Former Kano Pillars midfielder Solomon Okpako has signed a two-year contract with top South African club Mamelodi Sundowns. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":444087,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-444086","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.0 - 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