Her Crowning Glory
After playing for the Super Falcons for over a decade, Florence Omagbemi last Saturday in Yaounde, Cameroon, led Nigeria to its eighth victory in the African Women Cup of Nations, to become the first Nigerian to win the trophy as a player and as a coach.
She was given the Super Falcons’ coaching job on an interim basis to lead the team to the 2016 Africa Women Cup of Nations, but she never hid the fact that retaining the trophy won two years earlier would not be an easy task. Omagbemi understood that retaining the title would require more from the technical crew. Heading into the final against Cameroun, she said the team would build on the positives from the win over South Africa.
The tactician indeed praised her players for their determination against all odds in retaining the African title at the expense of host, Cameroun at the Stade Ahmadou Ahidjo, Yaounde. It was a record eighth African title for Nigeria.
The 41-year-old insists her side played for pride and prestige to survive their various opponents in spite of many challenges faced enroute the 2016 continental showpiece.
"I want to thank the Cameroonian team and the coach for giving us a good game. It was a great final to watch seeing the best two teams in Africa competing.
"As regards our journey to the tournament, I will give my players all the credits for achieving these despite all odds because they deserve it. It was a long journey from Nigeria to the final.
"At the beginning of our game against Mali, we took it one game at a time and that was my communication in all my press conference; that we must give other teams some respect as they were all here to compete for the trophy."
"Against Mali, it was a good result. We had a good score margin against them as we didn't take them for granted. Against the Ghanaians, we got a good result but most people didn't believe in us. I used to say it that we were here to defend our title. All the way to our game against Kenya - the scoreline was different.
"Even though in the semifinals, we played against South Africa, it was a different approach and we came out victorious. As defending champion, you have the pride and the prestige - the players understood all this pressure, stick to plan and playing together as a team because every game we play comes with different expectation.
"Even though with the crowd here, at the end of the day, we came out victorious. Even though, we only had one or two chances, all I care