AFCON 2025
Bankole Olowookere, the head coach of Nigeria’s women’s under-17 football team, the Flamingos, has expressed disappointment after the team’s ouster from the ongoing FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup in Morocco.
The Flamingos crashed out of the tournament on Tuesday night after a 4-0 loss to Italy. Despite a decent display in the opening forty minutes of the match, the Nigerian girls capitulated just before the break.
The Italians took advantage of a below-par second-half display from the Flamingos as they tore Bankole Olowookere’s side apart
Olowookere, in a post-match reaction, apologised to Nigerian fans across the world for the team’s exit.
“First of all, I want to tender an apology to our fans all over the world. We are sorry that we’ve come to the end of the road in this tournament. There are lessons for us to learn and benefits for us as well. It’s not too bad because we were able to get to the second round at least. Unfortunately, we wanted to push further, but the game turned around not in our favour.”
“Honestly, it’s painful, we didn’t work to deserve this. We came into the game with the mindset of doing something special and progressing to the next stage. Unfortunately, we held the game until the 44th minute before that painful goal came in, and subsequently, in the second half, everything went off. Sometimes, goals are a motivating factor, when you score, your morale goes up, but when you concede, it can drop.”
However, despite the loss, the coach commended his players for their efforts and encouraged them to learn from the experience.
“I give kudos to them. They gave their best, and even though our effort wasn’t enough, at least they tried. The World Cup is over, but the future is ahead of them. Some of them still have age on their side; they can still play at the U20 level or even make it to the Super Falcons someday. They’ve gathered a lot of experience here; facing players from other nations will go a long way in shaping their careers.”
Bankole Olowookere went on to call for early preparation ahead of the next edition, next year, as he believes that the essence of organising it yearly is to keep the girl-child busy through football and also narrow the competitive gap between them and their male counterparts.
“For Nigeria, this is the end of the road for now, but the journey starts from here. We have to start preparing again. That’s what FIFA wants: to keep the girl child busy, improving, and producing more players. Compared to the male side, they’re catching up fast, and this initiative will continue to help bridge that gap. I’m happy FIFA is creating these opportunities because they’re very profitable for the girl child globally.”
