The 25-year old came off the bench in the 81st-minute against Mexico, making his national team debut in a 2-1 defeat at the AT&T Stadium in Texas, USA.
Madu sat down with Pulse Sports for an exclusive interview in the Super Eagles camp and shared some facts about himself, here are the most interesting of those in no particular order.
Cesc Fabregas + N’golo Kante = Chiamaka Madu
Chiamaka Madu plays in central midfield and has some very interesting thoughts about himself and the players with whom he shares similarities.
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“When I was younger I do play more like Fabregas but as I was growing and keep improving, my game started changing and now I’m more of the N’golo Kante kind of player,” Madu said to Pulse Sports.
However outlandish those comparisons might seem, Madu is one of the best box-to-box midfielders in the Nigeria Professional League and plays with enough energy to have drawn comparisons with Kante.
Fun facts
Chiamaka Madu’s guilty pleasure is eating biscuits late in the night, or “chop chop” as he so eloquently described it.
The Rivers United midfielder also offered his thoughts on the biggest Nigerian music debate “Wizkid or Davido?”
“If I had to pick I’d go with Davido…why? Because of how friendly he is with his friends and stuff like that,” said Chiamaka Madu.
Favourite Nigerian things
In this session of the exclusive interview, we learn that Chiamaka Madu’s favourite Nigerian dish is “beans and plantain with lot of fresh tomatoes in it.”
Madu reveals his favourite Nigerian saying to be “No shaking” and selects the legendary Tuface Idibia as his favourite Nigerian artiste.
The 25-year old displays strong loyalty to Port Harcourt township, his hometown and place of birth which he selected as his favourite place in the world, little wonder he plays for Rivers United.
Career highlights
Chiamaka Madu reminisced on the trophy-laden 2016 with Rangers and tagged it the best moment of his career so far.
“Winning the Nigerian Premier League and winning the FA Cup with Rangers Football Club of Enugu,” Madu said while grinning from ear to ear with visible pride.
25-year old Madu has played for three different NPFL clubs in his eight-year professional career but considers his brother, Chidundu Francis Madu the best player he has ever played alongside which is very high praise.
“I think it’s my elder brother, though we don’t play professional football together, when playing with him in the boys club, we have this understanding, we normally speak our dialect even when playing,” Chiamaka said.