Sports
Ikpeba Wants Women Football Developed In Nigeria
Former Super Eagles striker, Victor Ikpeba has hailed the achievements of Nigeria’s Senior Women National Team, the Super Falcons while advocating for further development of the women’s game in the country.
Such is the dominance of the Falcons in Africa that they have won nine of the 11 Africa Women Cup of Nations.
However, their supremacy on the continent has not been replicated on the global stage, with a solitary quarter-final placement in 1999, their best outing at the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
The 1997 African Footballer of the Year believes women’s football has ‘come of age’ in the country and, as such, needs to get to the ‘next level,’ where it can compete favorably and win laurels at the global stage.
“I think women’s football (in Nigeria) has come of age, it needs to get to the next level, especially back home,” the former Monaco striker told Tidesports source.
“We are all looking forward to the day when the Super Falcons will get to the finals of the Olympics, the finals of the World Cup.
“But so far, they’ve done well. I think we should be proud of women football so far. But we still need to develop our female football back home.
“Should we shy away from that? I think that is where we have to get it right because our girls are really passionate about female football.
The Nigeria Football Federation recently appointed American Randy Waldrum as the new Head Coach of the Super Falcons to replace Swede Thomas Dennerby who left the post last year.
Iwobi spoke to Tidesports source ahead of Nigeria’s crunch playoff semi-final against Gabon on Thursday, November 13, in Rabat, Morocco.
The 28-year-old was reacting to Nigeria’s shaky World Cup qualifying campaign that saw the Eagles finish second in Group C behind South Africa’s Bafana Bafana.
“We’ve managed to rescue ourselves from the dead,” Iwobi told Tidesports source.
We know we have the players and the abilities to compete against any other country in the world.”
The Fulham star pointed to Nigeria’s star power, highlighting African Footballer of the Year winners Ademola Lookman and Victor Osimhen as proof of the squad’s quality.
“We have last year’s African best player (Ademola Lookman), the year before that (Victor Osimhen),” he said.
“It’ll be a shame if we don’t make it, but we have a lot of confidence. We just have to prove it to ourselves.”
Nigeria’s path to the United States, Canada and Mexico has been turbulent, with two coaches departing during the early stages of qualifying before Éric Chelle steadied the ship to steer the Super Eagles into November’s CAF playoffs.
Four nations from the continent – Nigeria, Cameroon, DR Congo and Gabon – will vie for a solitary spot to compete in next March’s inter-confederation playoffs, with a view to joining the already nine qualified African nations at the Finals.
It would mark Iwobi’s second appearance at the World Cup Finals and the Super Eagles’ first since the 2018 edition of the competition.
Back then, Iwobi featured in all three games as Nigeria was knocked out in the group stage.
The Chief Executive Officer(CEO) and Publisher of the Atlantic Bell Online medium, Mr. Celestine Ogolo has advised sports writers in Nigeria to diversify in sports writing and not to concentrate on football reporting alone.
The Deputy National President of Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) Mr. Bonny Nyong has expressed commitment to support sports development and move SWAN forward.