By Harry Awurumibe Editor, Abuja Bureau
Until 2018 when the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) signed an agreement with top Swedish football coach, Thomas Dennerby, to take the role of Head Coach of then eight-time African champions, Super Falcons, indigenous coaches have being leading the team and have done extremely well by every standard.
For 27 solid years, from February 16, 1991 when the Super Falcons thrashed Black Queens of Ghana 5-1 in the first leg of the 1st FIFA Women’s World Cup African qualifiers match at National Stadium Surulere, Lagos to January 31, 2018, Nigerian coaches handled the team with late Paul Ebiye Hamilton as the pioneer Head coach.
After qualifying and leading the team to the maiden FIFA Women’s World Cup final in China in 1991 and the second edition in 1995 in Sweden, Hamilton honourably handed over the baton to lead the Super Falcons to his able understudy and fellow former Nigeria ex-international player late Ismaila Mabo who remained the most successful Head Coach of Super Falcons.
Aside leading the Super Falcons to win the Ist African Women’s Championship (AWC) now renamed Women’s African Cup of Nations (WAFCON) in 1998 with the team winning all five matches in the competition without conceeding a single goal in the tournament, Mabo led the newly crowned African champions to the 3rd FIFA Women’s World Cup final in United States of America (USA) in 1999.
In the competition proper, Mabo-tutored Super Falcons punched above their weights by reaching the quarter-final of the global women’s football fiesta after creating upsets by defeating a top European country Denmark and North Korea in the group matches and nearly eliminated star-studded Brazil in the quarter-final tie before the better forgotten “Golden Goal” gifted Brazil win over Nigeria.
In deed, the match at Jack Kent Cooke Stadium, Washington DC/ Maryland, featuring Brazil and Nigeria, was the first in FIFA Women’s World Cup history to be decided by a Golden Goal in extra time. Cidinha scored twice in the first 22 minutes of the match and was joined by Nenê in the 35th minute to give Brazil a 3-0 lead at half-time.
But Nigeria substituted goalkeeper Ann Chiejine for Judith Chime and began pressing its attackers early in the second half. The Super Falcons scored their first goal in the 63rd minute, Prisca Emeafu taking advantage of a defensive mistake, and added a second through Nkiru Okosieme’s shot off a rebound in the 72nd minute. Nkechi Egbe scored the equalizing goal for Nigeria in the 85th minute with a far-post strike from 14 yards (13 m).
The goal forced “sudden death” extra time, which Nigeria would play with only 10 players after forward Patience Avre was ejected in the 87th minute for receiving a second yellow card. Brazilian midfielder Sissi, who had assisted two of the first-half goals, scored the golden goal from 22 yards (20 meters) in the 104th minute to win the match 4–3 for Brazil.
Super Falcons’ excellent performance ensured Nigeria finished in the 7th place out of 16 teams, chalked up a total of 6 points and even finished ahead of big names in world football like Germany, Denmark, Italy, Japan and five others, to qualify for Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. Also, Mabo led Nigeria to win the 2nd WAFCON in South Africa in 2000 and managed the Super Falcons at 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece before bowing out finally after a successful coaching career.
His successor, coach Samuel Okpodu won the 2002 WAFCON held in Warri, Nigeria, although the former Bendel Insurance attacker who was drafted to tinker the team took the Super Falcons to 4th FIFA Women’s World Cup final in USA, his girls failed to put up a good showing at the world stage hence he was fired after the competition.
Others Nigeria-born coaches who have won laurels with Super Falcons before the last WAFCON in Morocco in 2022 are coach Godwin Izilien who led the team to their 4th WAFCON title in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2004. Izilien and his players fought and won the battle, beating the Lionesses of Cameroun 5-0 in the final with Perpetua Nkwocha accounting for four goals plus a late strike from pocket dynamite, Vera Okolo.
In 2006, Ntiero Effiom Ntiero of blessed memory led the Super Falcons to their 5th straight WAFCON that was hosted in Nigeria. The Akwa Ibom gaffer saw Nigeria defeat Ghana 1:0 at the Warri Township Stadium to clinch the title. Both teams qualified for the 2007 FIFA Women’s World Cup in China which he also guided the team.
Enter the first female Head Coach of Nigeria Eucharia Uche in 2010. She was appointed after a not good performance by Nigeria at the 2008 edition of WAFCON and she guided the team to victory in South Africa. Nigeria defeated Equatorial Guinea by 5:2 at the Sinaba Stadium, Daveyton.
Her feat made her Nigeria’s first female coach of the Super Falcons to win WAFCON as a player and a coach as well as qualified Nigeria to the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Germany.
In 2014, NFF appointed experienced women’s football coach Edwin Okon who earlier led the national U-20, Falconets to the semi finals of the FIFA U-20 World Cup to replace Uche as the Super Falcons and like his predecessors, Okon guided the team to win the 2014 WAFCON in Namibia. Nigeria defeated Cameroun 2:0 at the Sam Nujoma Stadium, Windhoek to lift the trophy. Okon later led the Super Falcons to the 2015 World Cup in Canada but did not do pretty well hence he was replaced by the second female coach Florence Omagbemi in 2016.
Omagbemi a former Super Falcons longest serving captain was drafted to tinker the team after the abysmal performance of the team at the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Canada.
America-trained tactician, Omagbemi guided the team to the 2016 WAFCON in Cameroon as Nigeria again, defeated the Lionesses of Cameroun 0:1 in front of their crowd at the Stade Ahmadou Ahidjo, Yaoundé including President Paul Biya and the First Lady of Cameroon Mrs Biya. Sadly, Omagbemi and her entire crew were sacked afterwards following players revolt in Abuja against the federation over their unpaid match entitlements.
However, after one year without a coach, the NFF under Amaju Melvin Pinnick appointed a Swede, Thomas Dennerby as the substantive Head Coach of Nigeria in 2018 after the unceremonious dismissal of Omagbemi and her coaching crew,
The Swede who has coached the Swedish senior women’s national team and led them to a 3rd place finish at the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup and also did Scouting and Analysis for the Swedish FA at the 2013 and 2017 European Championships; the 2016 Olympics and the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Canada, quickly settled down in Nigeria and was seen travelling around the country to scout players in the Nigeria Women’s Football League (NWFL) many of who he invited to Super Falcons.
The experienced gaffer who came into the job with an Assistant, coach Jorgen Petersson, another highly experienced Swedish coach nominated by Dennerby himself and who like his boss has worked as Assistant Coach of the Swedish U-23 women team between 2006-2012 and Scouted for the Swedish women national team at European Championship as well as worked with several top Swedish clubs including Moheda IF, Osters IF, Vaxjo, Alvesta Golf, IFK Varmamo, Malmo FF, Kalmar FF and Linkopings FC, also brought many junior players from U-17 and U-17 teams and infused them into the Super Falcons.
The youth players he gave opportunities in the senior team include first choice goalkeeper Chiamaka Nnadozie; attacking midfielder Rasheedat Ajibade; forward Uchenna Kanu and defenders Rofiat Imuran, Glory Ogbonna and Chidinma Okeke as well as combative midfielder Christy Ucheibe, left-winger
Chinaza Uchendu and strikers Chinwendu Ihezuo and Anam Imo among others.
Dennerby also took some of these young players to 2018 WAFCON in Ghana and others to 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup final in France just as he also guided the Super Falcons to their 9th WAFCON title in Ghana where they edged South Africa 4:3 on penalties at the Accra Sports Stadium, Accra but he could only lead the team to the Round of 16 finish in France a year later.
He also led Nigeria to two WAFU Cup of Nations in Cote d’Ivoire in 2018 and 2019, winning one and runners-up in the other to cap a successful one year in charge of the best women’s team in Africa.
He however resigned his appointment shortly after the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup final in France citing irreconcilable difference between him and his employers, although he was assured of a conducive working environment to achieve the set milestones set for him by the federation, prompting the NFF to hire America-born Randy Waldrum in 2020 as Dennerby’s replacement barely three years after turning down the same job.
Recall Waldrum was approached by NFF in October 2017 to be appointed as Technical Adviser and Head Coach of the Nigeria women’s team, and was expected to take charge of the team ahead of the 2018 WAFCON qualifiers but he rather accepted the post of the Head Coach of the Pittsburgh Panthers, women’s football club of University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania, USA in December 2017.
Since he took charge of Super Falcons in October 5, 2020, the team’s fortunes have not changed positively if his inability to win the last WAFCON in Morocco in 2022 is anything to rely upon. Nigeria finished in the 4th place after losing to Morocco’s Atlas Lionesses in the semi-final stage and lost to Zambia in the 3rd Place play-off to lose the trophy won by his predecessor Dennerby in Ghana two years earlier.
Waldrum by not winning the WAFCON trophy in Morocco joined the unenviable list of coaches who failed to lift the continental football body’s Gold Trophy. Others are coaches Joseph Ladipo aka Jossy Lad in 2008 when the Super Falcons suffered their first humiliation in the the championship, losing to a relatively unknown Equatorial Guinea in the semi-final.
That defeat in Malabo saw the Falcons, which was led by late coach Joseph Ladipo, surrendering their then AWC title for the first time just as Kadiri Ikhana in 2012 edition also hosted by Equatorial Guinea failed to win the trophy for Nigeria for the second time in history. He accepted responsibility for the team’s failure to qualify for the final of the 6th WAFCON and subsequently resigned his appointment.
But reverse was the case following Waldrum’s Super Falcons unimpressive performance in Morocco last time out as he continued on the job as he was encouraged by the federation to shift his focus to the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup final in Australia and New Zealand.
With an unprecedented level of preparations by Super Falcons spanning two and half years, and including utilisation of every FIFA International Friendlies Window from 2021 to 2023 to play quality international tournaments and matches in USA, Canada, Japan, Mexico and Turkey against A-list countries, Waldrum’s team was expected to mount the podium in the women’s mundial but it never happened.
Although Nigeria reached the Round of 16 like she did in France in 2019 edition, Waldrum could not reach the quarter-final benchmark set by late Coach Mabo’s Super Falcons in 1999 FIFA Women’s World Cup final in USA. He did not also win as many matches as the two won by Nigeria in USA against Denmark and North Korea.
Nigeria beat co-host Australia 3-2 in the group stage and grinded out goalless draws against Canada and Republic of Ireland to qualify for the Round of 16 on 5 points and was knocked out by England on penalties after the regulation time ended on barren draw.
Curiously, Waldrum who returned to his native USA direct from Australia after Nigeria was eliminated from the World Cup refused to return to Nigeria to see out his first three years contract with NFF by leading Nigeria in the Paris 2024 Olympics African qualifiers double-header against Ethiopia in October and 2024 WAFCON qualifiers double-header against Cape Verde in November and December.
Again, the expatriate manager preferred to stay away from the four important matches to Nigeria even when he was still under contract and will receive his salaries and entitlements from the federation till October 31, 2023 when his contract ended without him working for his money.
Although his reasons for not coming to lead Nigeria for the Olympics and WAFCON qualifiers against Ethiopia and Cape Verde were found to be not strong enough, he still received his payments while his Nigerian assistants Justin Madugu, Ann Agumanu-Chiejine and Auwal Makwalla prosecuted the four matches successfully.
In his absence, the interim Head coach Madugu, Ann and Makwalla led Super Falcons to grind out a 1-1 draw away in the first leg tie in Addis Ababa in October 25 and thrashed Lucy of Ethiopia 4-0 in the return match at Moshood Abiola National Stadium, Abuja on October 31 to qualify for the 3rd round of the qualifiers.
Also, in the 2024 WAFCON qualifiers against Cape Verde in Abuja on Thursday, November 30, Madugu and his assistants led the
Super Falcons to fly even higher by walloping the Cape Verdean opponents 5-0 at Moshood Abiola National Stadium, Abuja.
The team completed the job by beating Cape Verde 2-1 away at Estádio Nacional de Cabo Verde in Praia on Tuesday, December 5 to qualify for yet another WAFCON billed for Morocco next year.
The high goal ratio recorded by the Super Falcons under the tutelage of Madugu and his Nigerian assistants reminds Nigerians, especially die-hard women’s football followers of the past years when Nigeria bestrode the African women’s football terrain like a Colosus by beating countries like Cameroon, South Africa and Morocco by wide margins to emerge the continental champions in the 1990s and 2000s respectively.
It is only reasonable that
the three coaches who have worked with Waldrum since 2020 and have shown enough technical and tactical prowess in managing the Super Falcons even better than the expatriate coach should be left to lead Nigeria to Morocco 2024 final.
This is even as the Nigerian coaches especially Madugu and Ann hold the highly respected CAF A and B licenses, UEFA and USSF Coaching Certificates and attended several NFF/CAF/FIFA Football Coaching Courses. They are graduates of Nigeria Institute of Sports (NIS) while Madugu has Masters in Science (M.Sc) in Sports Psychology at El-Roi London University; M Sc in Sports Management from the university; M Sc in Public Administration from the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN); Post-graduate Diploma in Public Administration at Adamawa State Polytechnic, etc.
Agumanu-Chiejine on her own is a proud holder of the above mentioned CAF A and B licenses; FIFA Certificates; UEFA and USSF Coaching licenses, NIS Certification and has recently obtained her badge as CAF Elite Women Instructor in Rabat, Morocco last October while she is one of the few coaches in Africa invited to participate in the first-ever CAF Goalkeeper Elite Course currently going on in South Africa as at time of filing this report.
In all, Madugu like his assistants have attended four WAFCON (winning two Gold medals and two fourth-placed finishes); he attended the 2020 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in Trinidad and Tobago where Nigeria reached the quarter-final; 2008 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup in Chile where Nigeria got to the quarter-final, 2015 and 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cups, 2018 African Mini-Football Championship in Libya where Nigeria qualified for the Mini-World Cup in Perth, Australia 2019 and won WAFU-B Cup in 2019, and 2015 All African Games.
The coach having visited over 36 countries around the world and with experience in the Civil Service and a good coaching chemistry with his assistants, is the perfect person to lead the Super Falcons as any attempt by the NFF hierarchy to still foist Waldrum on Nigeria’s senior women’s team will be counter productive and Nigeria may once again fail to win WAFCON title in Morocco next year.
Statistics showed that in four matches, Super Falcons under Madugu scored a whopping 12 goals and conceded only two, keeping clean sheets in two games with most of the goals coming in the second half to show the coach and his assistants read the matches better than Waldrum did in three years on the job.
Besides, Waldrum’s attitude to work and his overall performance betrayed the intention of the NFF hierarchy which in 2017 said it is favourably disposed “to get a world-class coach to take the Super Falcons and other women national teams to the next level (of competing creditably and for laurels at global championships), and who would also work assiduously with the Federation to ensure robust development of women football in Nigeria”.
Surprisingly, unlike Dennerby who lived in Nigeria most of the time and supported the other two women teams whenever he has the time and attended NWFL tournaments like the Super Six Play-off, Waldrum never stayed in the country nor scouted players in the NWFL, a league that produced youth defender Deborah Abiodun he “poached” for his Panthers women’s soccer club.
Indeed, Nigeria women’s football have nothing to benefit from the American-born gaffer’s “Second Missionary Journey” as being planned by the federation because his first employers, Pittsburgh Panthers women’s soccer club will not allow him to live in Nigeria to develop our local players and mould them to international stars like Nnadozie, Ajibade, Ucheibe, Kanu and recently Abiodun.
This is the crux of the matter.
