French Woman Set To Coach Falcons

The Super Falcons of Nigeria are lively to be handled by a French women, Elizabeth Loisel.

The former France skipper is one of the three coaches shortlisted for the vacant falcons’ coaching job after the contract of Eucharia Uche was not renewed.

Loisel has handled her native France as well as the national women’s team of China. She guided France to fifth place in the FIFA ranking but failed to qualify the team for the 2007 World Cup in China.

“Elizabeth comes highly recommended and she is the front runner to take over the falcons”, a top official of  the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) disclosed.

“It is high time that a foreign coach took charge of the team that needs a complete overhaul”.

Other shortlisted coaches for the job are Dutch women Hesterine de Reus and Rivers Angels coach Okon Edwin.

De Reus has handled the Dutch women under-19 team and Jordan’s women team.

Former Nigerian International, Rita Nwadike and Mercy Akide had also applied to handle the team.

It was however, learnt that Nwadike, who is an assistant coach at Rivers Angels FC, has now been proposed to assist the new foreign coach.

The other proposed assistant coach is Justin Madugu, who was assistant coach of the female under-17 team. Bala Mohammed has been recommended to be the goalkeepers’ trainer.

The falcons reclaimed their African crown in 2010 but they failed to shine at last year’s World Cup in Germany.

They also failed for the first time ever to qualify for the All Africa Games as well as the 2012 Olympics.

They were eliminated by Ghana and Cameroon, respectively in the qualifiers for those competitions.

The executive committee of the NFF is to meet this month to appoint a coach for the women’s team, and as well, for the country’s under-20 male team, the Flying Eagles.