Umejiaku: Africa Will Keep Winning
Oluebube Umejiaku has vowed that Nigeria’s historic FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup triumph will usher in a new era of African dominance in women’s youth football.
The Flamingos forward, who scored the decisive goal in Nigeria’s 2-1 victory over Japan in Saturday’s final in Morocco, declared that Africa would continue to produce champions following the country’s groundbreaking achievement.
Umejiaku’s tournament journey was particularly remarkable, having started the competition on the bench before emerging as Nigeria’s final hero and winning the Golden Ball as the tournament’s best player.
She scored as a substitute in Nigeria’s opening 2-1 defeat to Poland before finding the net against DPR Korea, Mexico and Japan as the Flamingos recovered to win the title.
“Every time I went to training and every time I slept, I told God that I’m praying for all the people that are starting. But when I wanted to start, I just told God that it is my time,” Umejiaku told FIFA.
Reflecting on Nigeria’s recovery from their opening defeat, she said: “When we lost the first game against Poland, everybody said we needed to wake up because we didn’t come here to look at anybody’s face and we have to take every game as a final. We don’t downgrade anything; we play and we put all our best into every game.”
She added: “I’m very happy because now we have broken the chain. In Africa we always win, that’s a promise. We’ve won, and now we’ll be winning and winning, that’s just it. We thank God for everything.”
