What are the facts?

After a slow start at Chippa as he was still adjusting to life in Mzansi and wasn’t playing regularly when he arrived from Nigeria’s Katsina United FC, Nwabali managed to force his way up to being one of the top goalkeepers in the league.

This season, the netminder has kept eight clean sheets in 18 league matches and is second on the charts to Mamelodi Sundowns’ Ronwen Williams who is on 11 clean sheets in 15 appearances.

Nwabali has also helped Chippa to progress to the quarter-finals of the Nedbank Cup after his appearance in the Last 16.

During Afcon, he played all the matches as the Super Eagles came close to winning the tournament.

Following the success of the Afcon, Nwabali was conferred with a chieftaincy title by His Royal Majesty, Nzeobi Amida, who is the ruler of the Mgbede community in Egbema Kingdom in Rivers State, as a sign of appreciation for his efforts.

The shot-stopper was earlier gifted a N20 million (+/-260 000) by Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara for his rise to stardom.

Following Nwabali’s Man of the Match performance against Bafana Bafana in the semifinals of Afcon, Chippa chairman Siviwe Mpengesi had this to say in a statement, in part, “The club wishes to extend its congratulations to Stanley Nwabali for his extraordinary achievement in reaching the Afcon final and for also earning the Man of the Match award. Our support for you remains steadfast. You have represented the Chippa United brand admirably and we are immensely proud of you. We will be rooting for you in the final against Ivory Coast on Sunday.”