'It's the right place for me': Goteh Ntignee eager to follow in footsteps of Loturi, Waterman at Cavalry FC
When Cavalry’s Goteh Ntignee scores, he likes to bring out the acrobatics.
Heck, he doesn’t even need to score himself to bring those out, he just needs any goal – just ask teammate William Akio, with whom Ntignee recently celebrated a goal by synchronizing an acrobatic celebration together.
GOAL🚨
— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) August 5, 2023
Welcome back to the #CanPL, William Akio! 🔥
He doubles @CPLCavalryFC's lead over Forge with a mazy run and finish, before pulling out his trademark acrobatic celebration to cap it off 🐎🐎
🔴https://t.co/7JFAUhgRAE pic.twitter.com/eqYp5ubq0M
But when Ntignee had the chance to score his first professional goal for Cavalry earlier this year against York, he got wrapped up in the moment. Instead, he ran straight to his team’s bench, where he jumped into the arms of his teammates.
A moment he’ll never forget, he was even more pleased to be able to share it with the team, having spent months putting in hard work with them to lead to an occasion like that.
“I don't know what happened, it was just an amazing feeling,” Ntignee told OneSoccer. “The feeling of scoring, and scoring your first goal (to boot), and then being able to celebrate, it was just such an amazing feeling, so amazing.”
“Emotions took over, I usually do a backflip, but I just ran and celebrated with the team, which was just an amazing feeling.”
🚨GOAL @CPLCavalryFC!🐎
— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) June 24, 2023
Cavalry are off to a flying start in this 2nd half vs York United, as Gareth Smith-Doyle finds Goteh Ntignee for his 1st-ever #CanPL goal!
Just look at what it means to him😤
🔴https://t.co/7JFAUhgRAE pic.twitter.com/870G5zHEax
Yet, that Ntignee was thinking of his teammates in a moment like that shows why he’s been an important member of Tommy Wheeldon Jr’s side this season. A quiet and unassuming figure off the field, he’s a fierce competitor on it, one who likes to have his teammates' backs.
Then, when they score, he’ll always be there to celebrate, usually with a smile sometimes even bigger than those who found the back of the net.
But that just shows how much Ntignee is enjoying his soccer at the moment, as he continues to be a key figure for this Cavalry side, becoming a key source of offence, while also providing them with valuable U21 Canadian minutes.
Having signed with the club last summer after a stint in Germany, he’s really found his feet in his first full season, and it’s shown as of late.
As someone who grew up in Alberta for a good chunk of his youth development, it’s been a homecoming of sorts, too, one that he’s enjoyed thoroughly. He reflects on his team in Europe fondly, as he felt his stints in the German fourth and fifth tier helped him along greatly, but he’s also quite pleased that he was able to find his feet at Cavalry the way that he did.
Used to playing against Wheeldon Jr teams growing up in Alberta and during his stint over in BC with the Victoria Highlanders, it’s been different to play underneath the bench boss, but it’s been an experience he’s enjoyed so far.
“When I was younger in Alberta, I used to play against Foothills,” he explained. “Then at the Victoria Highlanders, we’d play against Foothills in the PDL, and we played one of the players who are now on Cavalry’s staff, so my agent had reached out to them, they said they knew who I was and that they would love to have me.”
And the feeling is mutual for Wheeldon Jr. A coach who has seen his fair share of young talent come through the ranks at Cavalry and at the Foothills under his tutelage over the years, he’s always been one that has enjoyed working with players like Ntignee, who are hungry and willing to learn.
You add in Ntignee’s unique skillset, and it’s been a perfect match between the two.
An extremely quick runner, both on and off the ball, as well as a good dribbler, he’s got the exact sort of profile to thrive as a wide player in the modern game.
Yet, given that he was usually a striker before, it meant that shifting him out wide has been a bit of an adjustment, especially with how Cavalry plays. A team that typically plays a very modern tactical system with a back three and wing backs, their only true wide players are wing backs, as their wingers typically cut inside and operate centrally, as Ali Musse does.
That meant that to play out wide, Ntignee had to add some new elements to his game, improving his defensive responsibility and ability to combine in tight spaces, key skills for a modern wing back.
To his credit, however, he’s taken to that task quite nicely. It was a bit of a slow adjustment - of his first 10 appearances for the club, just one was a start, but since then, he’s found his rhythm, starting in seven of his last nine appearances.
Through that, Wheeldon Jr has noticed strong growth in his game, which he says is a credit to the approach he’s had to learning the game.
“What we're trying to do with them is teaching him how to become a modern footballer,” Wheeldon Jr explained this week. “I don't think there's a fixed structure anymore in football, there's fluidity. We’ve always sampled this, too. I was going back through some of our older games, and even in 2020 at the Island Games in PEI, we were playing a 3-4-3 with a box midfield, I know we've played with inverted fullbacks before.”
“So what we're trying to do is give him a picture, because we have principles of play. And what he's done is he's brought his own DNA to that, his speed is incredible, he can play 1v1, he's got a final act, and I still think there's another level or two there for him in his final act that we've been working on the training ground for. And what's great is he's so humble, he’s hungry, he’s taken a road less travelled to try and get to where he is now, but he's got the world ahead of him.”
“And our job now is to keep being patient with him. Give him moments, keep teaching him, give him positive feedback, but also keep giving them feedback that says, look, this is where you can be better if you want to be a top, top player. And through that, he's been very good at it. So you've got good people around him, coach Leon Hapgood has been terrific in working with him and managing him, and so has our medical team in building a robust athlete that can play at the top, top level.”
GOAL🚨@CPLCavalryFC opens the scoring over Forge, as Eryk Kobza gets on the end of a Goteh Ntignee cross to make it 1-0🐎
— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) August 5, 2023
And how about the set-piece routine from the Cavs to set it up?🔥
🔴https://t.co/7JFAUhgjL6 pic.twitter.com/p9Jj1pASPJ
From there, Wheeldon Jr. noted that the next step was to work on decision-making, which is another huge aspect of playing in a position like wing back.
A physically taxing position with a lot of demands, it’s important that you make the right decisions when playing there, from knowing when to run in behind and to drop in and play some passes.
Then, lastly, the biggest thing has been consistency. Sometimes, young players can have excellent games, and then follow them up with matches to forget. For those at the top level, however, there is rarely that sort of variance in how they play, which can often be the hardest thing to learn.
Given that some of Ntignee’s best performances have all come as of late, however, such as a two-assist performance against Forge, indicates that he’s on the right track in that regard. Unfortunately, he was recently sidelined by a minor thigh injury, but other than that, he’s been tackling each challenge with the right vigour each week.
And despite that, Wheeldon Jr. still feels that he has another gear to hit within that, something that he’s challenging him to do when he returns from that injury.
“We’ve worked on starting positions, as there’s variation in our attack,” Wheeldon Jr. continued. “As a wide player, you have to know when to draw the fullback in, and when to check and go in behind, when to move to receive to feet or in space, whether to cross, dribble or pass, so we’ve been helping him with his decision making.”
“We do a lot of drills that are chaotic, because I firmly believe in chaos being a great trainer, so we put him in those environments in training. Then, when you see him in that Forge game, it was a great game that he's played, you see that all parts of his game, from his defensive press to his 1v1 ability all shone, it was just it was special.”
“Now, what we’ve got to say is okay, that was one really good game, now can you have three or four in a row, can you turn that into a strong overall season?”
Still just 21 years of age, there’s no doubt that Ntignee still has a lot of growth still to come, too, which is exciting.
And at Cavalry, he’s at the right club to nurture that. They may have only existed for four years, but they can already say that they’ve moved players like Victor Loturi, Aribim Pepple and Joel Waterman on to the next level, living up to their mandate of being a development club.
So for Ntignee, he’s eager to now follow in their footsteps. Someone who knows both Pepple and Loturi, who moved to England’s Luton Town and Scotland’s Ross County last summer, respectively, he would love nothing more than to follow a similar journey to them.
“It's been good to see,” Ntignee said. “I know both Aribim and Victor, and to me, it means that the club is doing the right things. So for me to be at Cavalry it’s the right place, and who knows, maybe they can push me on, too, so it's been really good to see.”
Having already had a taste of Europe, he yearns to return, taking the lessons of his time in Calgary with him.
“Yeah, it was a different side to see, it’s a different world over there,” he said of his time in Europe. “But from the football to the people, and the language, everything was good, so hopefully, I can end up back in Europe again.”
GOAL 🐎🐎
— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) July 1, 2023
Goteh Ntignee scores to put the match out of reach as @CPLCavalryFC now lead 2-0 over @ValourFootball
Valour have created quality chances and will wonder how this one got away from them!
🔴 https://t.co/7JFAUhgjL6 pic.twitter.com/sRDxao4GJc
And from there, who knows, maybe he’ll even end up in the red and white of Canada, the same way that Loturi and Waterman have. Canadian eligible, Ntignee has represented both Canada and Nigeria at the youth levels, two experiences which he reflects on fondly.
Because of that, he’s eager to wear the shirt of one of those countries one day.
For Canadian fans, they’ll hope that it is red and white, and to be fair, that could indeed happen if he continues to progress the way he has, so they’ll keep an eye out for that.
“Both were really good, for sure,” Ntignee said of his international experiences. “If I were to get to choose one day, at all, I don't know who I would play for, but yeah, it was an amazing experience.”
No matter what, however, one thing’s for sure, Ntignee is worth watching, and he’s eager to continue growing as Cavalry continue to chase their dreams of silverware for the rest of this 2023 CPL season.
