The head coach of the Nigeria U17 women’s national team, Bankole Olowookere has commenced preparation for the next cadet World Cup Qualifiers.
The home-based coach disclosed that he is proud of talents in the country as he commends the efforts of the organizers of the Nigeria Women Football League (NWFL) Championship.
Olowookere was at the match venue of the playoffs to scout for talents for the Flamingos team.
He led his team to a historic third-placed finish last year defeating the United States of America (USA) on penalties in the quarterfinals following an exciting and closely-contested game that ended 1-1 in regulation.
Prior to that, Flamingos had only advanced to the quarterfinals in the editions from 2010, 2012, and 2014, respectively, while missing out on qualification in 2018.
Nigeria’s Flamingos will start their quest to qualify for the 2024 FIFA U17 World Cup in the second round in February 2024 against Mauritius or the Central African Republic (CAR).
Mauritius and Central Africa Republic will square up in the first round with the winner facing last year’s bronze medalist.
The coach will be looking to break his last outing record by reaching the final and probably wins it, hence the early preparation and scouting.
According to a post shared on his official Twitter handle, some exceptional talents have been picked to work on and nurture in time to represent the country.
“The NWFL Championship is a well-organized tournament, kudos to the organizers and it shows we have a lot of talent in Nigeria, the two teams that qualify give good accounts of themselves
“Honesty, if I have not been around here would have been pained, and it wouldn’t be nice if I was given a second-hand story, thank God I came here and iIsaw wonderful talents, I tell you as we are progressing, these talents are good and bound around which we are able to pick some exceptional one and the ones we are going to work on as well.
“I and my other technical team still have some work to do on them to make sure they are ready for the national assignment.
“Nigerians are expecting more from me and they are expecting us to do more than what we have done in the past. This is why I came around to select the right players to begin to work on them before time.”
MOLATsportgist 