By Saheed Afolabi
The Chief Coach of Nigeria U17 women’s side, Bankole Olowookere has expressed excitement over the number of exceptionally talented players he saw at the just concluded Nigeria Women Football League (NWFL) Championship.
Coach Olowookere made history with the Flamingos as he took them to a third-place finish at the last U17 FIFA Women’s World Cup in India.
The experienced gaffer lauded the NWFL for organizing a top-notch Championship where the best sides qualified for the NWFL Premiership.
Olowookere said he was astonished by the talented players at the Championship as he was glad he experienced the tournament himself.
“The NWFL Championship is a well-organized tournament, kudos to the organizers and it shows we have a lot of talents in Nigeria, the two teams that qualify give good accounts of themselves,” he said.
“Honesty, if I have not been around here I would have been pained, it wouldn’t be nice if I was given a second-hand story, thank God I came here and I saw wonderful talents, I tell you as we are progressing, these talents are good and bound around which we can pick some exceptional one and the one 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 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.”
The Flamingos are expected to start their campaign to qualify for the FIFA U17 Women’s World Cup in the first quarter of 2024.
Dominican Republic has been scheduled to host the next U17 Women’s World Cup in 2024.
