Super Falcons: Four-time CAF African Best Footballer, Nkwocha, hails Tinubu, seek reward for nineth-WAFCON title winners 

By Harry Awurumibe, Africa’s No.1 Women Football Journalist

Four-time CAF Best Player of the Year and Africa’s record goalscorer, Perpetua Ijeoma Nkwocha has risen in support of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for honouring the victorious members of Nigeria’s senior women’s football team who won the 10th Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) title in Morocco last month with national awards and cash rewards of 100,000 USD each.

This is even as she has also urged the President to extend the financial rewards and national recognition similar to what was given to the team that won 10th WAFCON trophy for Nigeria to the retired Super Falcons players who helped Nigeria to win nine previous trophies.

Speaking exclusively to Prompt News at the weekend from her base in Sweden, Nkwocha, who is not known to make public statements even when she was hugging headlines in her active football days, insists that she is excited about the lavish reception the federal government organised for the 10th WAFCON title-winning team.

According to her, “President Tinubu deserves commendation for  honouring the young ladies who brought honours to Nigeria and made our country’s men and women happy once again after Nigeria failed to win the 2022 edition”.

She argued that nothing is too much for the federal government to honour the team with, pointing out that she just like most of the retired players, applauds the way the federal government rewarded the team for the feat achieved in Morocco.

But Nkwocha, who won six titles in eight WAFCON  outings in the colours of Nigeria and also scored a  whopping 34 goals, an African record till date, is calling on the country’s leader to see reasons for the call by the umbrella body of retired national women’s team players called United Ex-Super Falcons.

Said she: “there is no gainsaying the fact that my generation of Super Falcons received no financial support nor  compensation of any kind despite our numerous contributions to Nigeria’s success in women’s football.

Nkwocha, a four-time CAF Best Player of the Year (2004, 2005, 2010, and 2011);  three-time WAFCON topscorer (2004, 2006, and 2010); and one of the four Nigerians to win WAFCON as a player and coach, others being Eucharia Ngozi Uche, Florence Omagbemi and Ann Onyegecha Agumanu-Chiejine, lamented that the previous federal government and Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) are not fair to her generation of Super Falcons because most of the promises made to the retired players during their active years were not kept.

“We were owed match entitlements and on few occasions when the federal government invited us over for a reception it ended on empty promises and “golden handshakes” as we were not given either national awards or financial largesse. I believe government is a continuum, and this is the best time for Tinubu to reward us who won nineth WAFCON titles for Nigeria. It is not too late”, said Nkwocha, who was the assistant coach of Super Falcons team that won the seventh WAFCON trophy in Cameroon in 2016.

She emphasized that the current Super Falcons’ achievements are built on the solid foundation laid by previous generations and that these retired players deserve acknowledgement and support of the federal government because most of them are now homeless, sick, and poor.

The Imo state-born ex-international who is currently coaching in Sweden is looking forward to President Tinubu’s invitation to United Ex-Super Falcons just as she said that the Chairman of National Sports Commission (NSC) and the Director General, Hon. Bukola Olopade can help persuade the president to do the needful.