14 years ago, the world football governing body, FIFA introduced the U-17 Women’s World Cup with the first edition staged in New Zealand from 28 October to 16 November, 2008.
Nigeria was among the 16 nations that made their debut in the tournament which was played in four cities and won by North Korea.
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Nigeria, led by coach Felix Ibe Ukwu was the first African side to qualify for the tournament, booking their place at the tournament with a game to spare.
The Nigerian girls, better known as Flamingos, however, failed to qualify from Group D which had South Korea, England and Brazil as opponents. They only managed to finish 3rd with four points.
Despite the failure, the cadet tournament threw up immensely talented Nigerian ladies who went on to win laurels with the senior women’s national team, the Super Falcons.
One of such players is Desire Oparanozie who later captained and won four Nations Cup titles and golden boot in 2014 with the senior national team. She has also participated in the FIFA Women’s World Cup tournaments in 2011, 2015, and 2019.
Others are Ebere Orji who won the Nations Cup in 2010, Martina Ohadugha who was also part of the winning team in 2014 and played at the 2015 FIFA World Cup as well as Amarachi Okonkwo who also won the 2018 Nations Cup with the Super Falcons.
In the 2010 edition held at Trinidad & Tobago, Nigeria coached by Peter Dedevbo got to the quarter-finals before losing to South Korea.
Francisca Ordega, Ngozi Okobi-Okeoghene scored five goals each and went on to win four African Women’s Championships with the Super Falcons in 2010, 2014, 2016 and 2018.
Again in 2012, Peter Dedevbo qualified Nigeria for the tournament in Azerbaijan and got to the quarter-finals before losing on penalties to France. He lost again at the same stage in the 2014 edition in Costa Rica. The standout player from that edition was Rasheedat Ajibade who has won several individual and team laurels in her illustrious career.
Meanwhile, coach Nikyu Bala failed to lead Nigeria beyond the group stage in the 2016 edition held in Jordan while failing to qualify for the 2018 edition held in Uruguay when the Flamingos were tripped at the final hurdle by Cameroon on the away-goal rule.
However, goalkeeper Chiamaka Nnadozie was the breakout star from the 2016 edition. She has gone ahead to make a huge name for herself as she is now a regular starter for the Super Falcons.
As if stung back to life by the 2018 failure, the Flamingos are top favourites to qualify for the 2022 edition in India. The coach Bankole Olowookere tutored youngsters are soaring high, as they are yet to taste or concede a defeat since the commencement of the African qualifiers.
Flamingos kick-started their chase for a ticket to the 2022 World Cup with a comprehensive 3-0 victory over DR Congo in the second round, first leg encounter in Kinshasa in March 2022.
Few days later, two goals by Opeyemi Ajakaiye and one each by Tumininu Adeshina, Anastasia Atume and Taiwo Afolabi steered the team to a comprehensive 5-0 defeat of the Congolese in the return leg in Benin City for an 8-0 aggregate win.
Brimming with confidence, the girls went a notch higher and defeated the Egyptian girls 4-0 at the MKO Abiola National Stadium, Abuja in the final round of the African qualification and completed the rout a few days later to end the clash 6-0 on aggregate.
After the Egyptian game, team captain, Alvine Da Zossu praised the coaching crew for making them better players who can score so many goals while promising to do more in the final games.
She said this during the presentation of N600, 000 cash to the team by the president of the Ratels Sports Development Foundation (RSDF), Barrister Paul Edeh who had promised to reward them with N100, 000 per goal scored against the Egyptians.
“I would like to use this medium to thank our officials and our coaches because without them, this wouldn’t have been possible.
“We wouldn’t have scored more goals. We wouldn’t have made Nigerians proud. We want to say thank you to our coaches and officials for all they’ve been doing for us and making us become better players and we pray that in our next match, we are going to do more. Thank you very much sir,” she said.
The girls kept to their pledge as they took a major step towards qualification in the final round, first leg duel staged at the Abebe Bekila Stadium Adis Ababa where they defeated Ethiopia by a lone goal scored by prolific striker Opeyemi Ajakaiye who took her goals’ tally to six so far.
Despite the one goal advantage, the girls have not shown any sign of complacency as they are still motivated to seal their World Cup qualification with victory over the Ethiopian girls in today’s final match at the MKO Abiola national stadium.
Therefore, the stage is set for the Flamingos who have scored 15 goals without conceding for an impeccable record in the qualifiers, to soar to India where they will have the opportunity to fight for their first world title.
In an exclusive phone chat with Olowookere, the coach who doubles as Technical Adviser of NWFL side, Naija Ratels FC told Trust Sports that the team is preparing hard to clinch the ticket to the world cup while remaining modest on the team’s ability to end the qualifiers without conceding a goal.
“The preparation is going well and going to the World Cup is the ultimate target for me. Let’s leave this till after the final round. You know in this job, you have to be careful with what you say but when you achieve it, then we can talk about how we were able to keep clean sheets.”
He reiterated the same position when he spoke to nff.com. Olowookere charged the young girls to keep calm and not underrate their opponents from Ethiopia.
“Our main objective is to make Nigeria proud, make Nigerians happy with the World Cup ticket. We will not under-rate the Ethiopians because they are a good team who also qualified to this stage.
“We defeated them 1-0 in their country but that does not mean we should assume that the ticket is won. We must work hard and keep our heads until the referee’s final whistle. No match ends until it is called to an end by the referee.
“We are focused on the task at hand. The Ethiopians have shown a flair for playing better on away ground and that is one thing we have taken on board. The best approach will be to keep the ball away from them while we do the playing.
“We have been working on that since we returned from Addis Ababa and I believe we have the energy and the stamina for that approach,” he said.
Meanwhile, ahead of the crucial encounter, players like Opeyemi Ajakaiye, Blessing Emmanuel, Blessing Sunday and goal keeper Faith Omilana are expected to lead the charge to see Nigeria qualify for the 2022 FIFA U-17 World Championship in India.
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