By Harry Awurumibe, Editor, ABUJA BUREAU
With two weeks to July 20 start of the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 holding in Australia and New Zealand, Nigeria is among the 32 participating countries that have named their squad lists and also landed in Australia for the upcoming football fiesta in the Southern hemisphere.
Super Falcons Head Coach, Randy Waldrum has since released a list of 23 players who will represent Nigeria in the women’s mundial and the list has since elicited criticism and condemnations by Nigerians.
In Waldrum’s list for the biggest-ever FIFA Women’s World Cup finals are Goalkeepers: Chiamaka Nnadozie (Paris FC, France); Tochukwu Oluehi (Hakkarigucu Spor FC, Turkey) and Yewande Balogun (AS Saint-Etienne, France)
Others are defenders Onome Ebi (Abia Angels); Osinachi Ohale (Deportivo Alaves, Spain); Glory Ogbonna (Besiktas JK, Turkey); Ashleigh Plumptre (Leicester City, England); Rofiat Imuran (Stade de Reims, France); Michelle Alozie (Houston Dash, USA) and Oluwatosin Demehin (Stade de Reims, France).
Midfielders Halimatu Ayinde (Rosengard FC, Sweden); Rasheedat Ajibade (Atletico Madrid, Spain); Toni Payne (Sevilla FC, Spain); Christy Ucheibe (SL Benfica, Portugal); Deborah Abiodun (Rivers Angels) and Jennifer Echegini (Florida State University, USA) are in the squad.
Waldrum also listed forwards Uchenna Kanu (Racing Louisville, Kentucky, USA); Gift Monday (UDG Tenerife, Spain); Ifeoma Onumonu (NY/NJ Gotham FC, USA); Asisat Oshoala (Barcelona Femenine, Spain); Desire Oparanozie (Wuhan Chegu Jianghan, China); Francisca Ordega (CSKA Moscow, Russia) and Esther Okoronkwo (AS Saint-Etienne, France).
A closer look at the squad showed that no fewer than 13 players are going to the FIFA Women’s World Cup finals for the first. They include Glory Ogbonna, Oluwatosin Demehin, Deborah Abiodun, Ashleigh Plumptre, Rofiat Imuran, Gift Monday and Christy Ucheibe.
The entire US-born players namely Toni Payne, Ifeoma Onumonu, Esther Okoronkwo, Michelle Alozie, Yewande Balogun and Jennifer Echegini are also the debutants in the Super Falcons squad.
Interestingly, the other players in Waldrum’s list are the survivors of the last FIFA Women’s World Cup France 2019 team as the coach made a near clean sweep of the Super Falcons “old brigade”. Out of the 23 players who represented Nigeria in France four years ago, 10 are returning in 2023 edition in Australia/ New Zealand.
They are goalkeepers- Chiamaka Nnadozie and Tochukwu Oluehi; defenders-Osinachi Ohale, Onome Ebi; midfielders- Halimat Ayinde and Rasheedat Ajibade as well as forwards- Asisat Oshoala, Desire Oparanozie, Francisca Ordega and Uchenna Kanu who were the mainstay of former Head Coach Thomas Dennerby’s Super Falcons in his less than two years stint which delivered Women’s African Cup of Nations (WAFCON) trophy in 2018 in Ghana and Round of 16 in France 2019.
With about 60% of members of France 2019 squad dropped, it means that Waldrum has decided to pick his most trusted “diaspora players” especially those who have dual citizenship of Nigeria and United States of America (USA) he brought into the team immediately he was employed in 2020.
No sooner Waldrum who doubles as the current Head Coach of University of Pittsburgh Panthers women’s soccer team was hired by Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) under ex- President Amaju Melvin Pinnick as Nigeria senior women’s national team handler on October 5, 2020, than he opened the floodgates of foreign-born players to dorn Nigeria’s national colours instead of countries of their births.
No wonder he has kept faith with an old Yewande Balogun, a 34-year former Los Angeles amateur women’s football club but currently with a French Division 2 club AS Saint-Étienne, whom he picked as the 3rd reserve goalkeeper of Super Falcons instead of taking a younger shotstopper like 19-year Inyene Etim of Abia Angels FC, a youth international who has been an understudy for some time now and can be valuable to Nigeria in the next four years.
Also, Waldrum picked US-born attackers Ifeoma Onumonu who plays for New York/New Jersey Gotham FC, USA and Esther Okoronkwo of AS Saint-Etienne, France as well as defender Michelle Alozie of Houston Dash, USA; midfielders Toni Payne of Sevilla FC, Spain and Jennifer Onyi Echegini of Florida State University, USA.
The six American- born players are joined by British-Nigerian defender Ashleigh Plumptre of England Women’s Super League club, Leicester City FC to make a total of seven out of 23 players who will represent Nigeria in Australia and New Zealand next month.
Curiously, Waldrum picked only two home-based players for Australia and New Zealand in Captain Onome Ebi of Abia Angels and
Deborah Abiodun of Rivers Angels, a far cry from seven players Dennerby took to France in 2019 for developmental purposes to encourage the Nigeria Women’s Football League (NWFL) just as the seven clubs that produced the players got the FIFA largesse after the World Cup.
In fact, Dennerby in his wisdom picked all three goalkeepers from the local league and started the youngest of them, Chiamaka Nnadozie (ex-Rivers Angels) in Nigeria’s four games in France 2019.
The other home- based players in France 2019 squad are Tochukwu Oluehi (Rivers Angels), Chidinma Okeke (FC Robo), Amarachi Okoronkwo (Nasarawa Amazons), Evelyn Nwabuoku (Rivers Angels), Alaba Jonathan (Bayelsa Queens) and Alice Ogebe (Rivers Angels).
The apparent disdainful attitude of Waldrum to the NWFL players cannot be explained as he has never been a fan of the domestic league and has not in three years spent time in Nigeria nor being able to watch the NWFL.
The American is truly not interested in developing Nigerian players but has relied heavily on the finished products; Nigerian players already doing well abroad instead of giving some of the talented home-grown players the chance to fight for places in the World Cup-bound Super Falcons squad.
This means that Nigeria’s team currently in Australia is made up of 98% foreign-based, the reason less than a dozen members of Super Falcons travelled to Australia from Nigeria while other participating teams are arriving Australia and New Zealand as a group.
It remains to be seen how Waldrum’s Super Falcons will perform in the biggest women’s football competition in the world.
