After being appointed as assistants to Randy Waldrum at the helm of the Nigerian female football team, the Super Falcons, Edwin Okon and Justine Madugu have called for total revamp of the team in a bid to address the current slump of the team.
Fans of the Super Falcons have been concerned about recent performances and have their eyes peeled on bet9ja for the latest updates on the team. Following their meeting with AmajuPinnick, president of the Nigerian Football Federation, Maduguand Okon, know their exact roles and responsibilities in the team. The pair will take on training and scouting young, quality players, for the Super Falcons. These players will be from both home and abroad.
Okon is familiar with the Super Falcons setup, as a one-time coach who is the Chief Scout, tasked with monitoring and attracting players from home and abroad. According to Okon, the Super Falcons need a complete overhaul to reassert her once-upon-a-time dominance on the continent.
In an interview, Okon said; “I am optimistic that the Super Falcons will still dominate women’s football in Africa for long if we overhaul the current squad with the introduction of young and very good players in and outside Nigeria. We need to beef up the team to maintain our position as the best team in Africa,”.In addition to her Chief Scout duties, Okon is the coach of the River Angels, the champions of the Nigerian Female Football league.
She added; “We have to go to work immediately to help fish out players who take over from the ageing and out of form players in the Super Falcons. We cannot afford to miss qualifying for the World Cup in 2023, so we would recommend the players that will help the coach in moving forward.”
Justine Madugu will be taking on First Assistant Coach duties and much like Okon, believes in a huge overhaul. He hopes an injection of young, fresh, and still-hungry players will be a boost to the team and provide the quality needed.
“The process of rebuilding a team has to be a gradual process. We cannot just throw away the ageing players, we need some of them around to help the young one develop. We shall allow them to compete with the older players for places in the team. We have to ease them off gradually,” Madugu said in an interview.
He added: “We know these players and we know their capacity and mentality and we know our strength. It is those strengths that we work on so that we can get the best out of the players.
Madugu also highlighted the importance of having local coaches, especially when the head gaffer is foreign. “When European coaches arrive Africa, it always takes them a while to settle down and understand the players and the time is not there. That is why they need coaches who know these players to guide them,”
