NFF v Waldrum face-off: Ex-Super Falcons coach insists Yewande Balogun not supposed to be in team

With less than three weeks to Nigeria's opener at the 2023 Fifa Women's World Cup, the Nigeria Football Federation and manager Randy Waldrum are fighting dirty in public over the selection of players for the tournament which will be hosted by Australia and New Zealand. 

The American football tactician has picked just one home-based player on his 23-man roster in the shape of Onome Ebi and another bone of contention was the dropping of fan favorite Ngozi Okobi from the squad. 

Waldrum was given a free hand to select the players for the World Cup but did not liaise with his employers before finalizing his squad. 

The Super Falcons coach claims the Nigeria Football Federation are trying to impose players on him, especially in the goalkeeping department. 

The NFF have argued that Saint-Étienne goalkeeper Yewande Balogun should not have been named on the roster as she is more or less a goalkeeper coach. 

Former Super Falcons head coach Edwin Okon who also at one point assisted Randy Waldrum, has sided with the Nigerian Federation, stressing that there are goalkeepers in the NWFL Premiership better than Balogun. 

"What our coach is doing now is uncalled for, that's an excuse. There are so many goalkeepers in Nigeria but he said he won't go with any home based to the World Cup so I'm not surprised with his attitude at all," Okon stated. 

"He picked Onome Ebi but at that level she is the captain of the team, it was impossible he dropped her at this stage. There are so many players here in Nigeria that are better the players in the squad. 

"If he can ask me as a coach not to step into his pitch, I think he can talk to anybody.

"I am not being personal and not condemning her, Yewande Balogun is not supposed to be in the team. There are one or two keepers in the league that are far better than Yewande at that level."

Balogun was an assistant women's soccer coach at the University of California and was invited to make up the numbers when COVID-19 travel restrictions resulted in some Super Falcons players unable to travel to Texas for a friendly between Nigeria and the United States in June 2021.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel 

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