13th June, 2012
The new Super Falcons’ coach, Kadiri Ikhana, is gradually restoring the confidence that the ardent football-loving Nigerian fans used to have in the senior national female side.
Ikhana, who led Enyimba of Aba to a CAF Champions League title, declared recently that his target as coach of the team is to win the 2015 Women’s World Cup.
In a bid to shape up the team, the coach who was a member of the Green Eagles that won the 1980 African Cup of Nations, has invited three falconets to join the squad as they prepare for the weekend’s AWC qualifier against Zimbabwe in Lagos.The newly invited players are Ngozi Orji, Francisca Ordega and Osinachi Ohale.
This adds up to six the Falconets called to join the Falcons as the early trio of Desire Oparanozie, Gloria Iroegbu and Esther Sunday featured in the first fixture in Harare, Zimbabwe. Ikhana said his plans are to regularly call up players whom he tags ‘Super Falcons’ even though they also feature for the U-20 side.
“We always have an intention of inviting the U-20 players because some of them have already been capped for the Falcons in the past so they are really Falcons.
“The U20 team came back barely four days to our trip to Zimbabwe making it difficult for us to invite all the players we needed. We took three now as we have been with set of players for six weeks and couldn’t add more new players close to the match against Zimbabwe.”
The former CAF coach of the year will not guarantee any player a permanent shirt, but believes a new team will soon emerge for Nigeria.
By Bimbo Ajayi