National Teams
AUDIO & EXCERPT: Interim Super Falcons coach: Who is Justine Madugu and expectations?
Nigeria Football Federation has elevated former FC Taraba and Adawama United boss Justine Madugu to acting head coach role of the Super Falcons, following the absence of substantive manager Randy Waldrum.
This development comes into force, pending the conclusion of a contract extension discussion with current American manager Randy Waldrum, whose current deal runs out on October 31, 2023. Madugu, 59, who was part of erstwhile Thomas Dennerby’s 2018 WAFCON title-winning and 2019 World Cup Round of 16 crew, had been first assistant to Randy Waldrum since November 2021.
Madugu had rose through the ranks as a coach, having previously served at various youth levels of the women’s national teams, including the Under-17 and Under-20 since 2008 before joining the Super Falcons team in 2014.
In this exclusive interview with Nigeria Football editor, Samuel Ahmadu, Madugu opened up on his journey with women’s football in the country and the crucial tasks at hand, beginning against Ethiopia in the Paris 2024 CAF Olympic Games qualifiers in the race to feature at the Olympic Games for the first time in 16 years. Excerpt.
NigeriaFootball: Talk us through your journey with women’s football in Nigeria?
Justine Madugu: My journey to Super Falcons or the national team started around 2008 when I was invited to assist (late) coach Dan Evumena, may God rest his soul. With the under-20 women national team, qualified for the Chile 2008 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup after which I was drafted to the under-17 to assist coach Peter Dedevbo, with the under-17 women’s team at Trinidad and Tobago in 2010.
Coming back from Trinidad and Tobago in 2010, I was drafted again to assist Quadri Kana, with the Super Falcons. If we were together with him in Equatorial Guinea in 2012. After 2012 I was drafted to assist coach Okon and Danjuma, assisted coach Okon in Namibia with the Super Falcons in 2014. After the 2015 Women’s World Cup was no longer with the team. A new set of coaches were appointed for the national team that was when coach Lawrence Omagbemi took over the team. In 2018 the Mini Football Association of Nigeria invited me to raise 18 for mini football association for Nigeria at the African qualifier which was the qualifier for the mini-football championship in Australia. So I assembled a team and represented Nigeria in Libya at the mini-football championship. Where we also qualified for the mini-World Cup.
I’m coming back from that assignment I was drafted back to the Super Falcons again in 2018, to assist coach Thomas Dennerby. which accounted for the reason why I could not attend the Mini World Cup and Australia, then we were together with the coach Thomas Dennerby. After the Women’s Afcon success and the Round of 16 finish at the World Cup in France, I left the team in 2019. After about a year when Randy was appointed, I was drafted back again to the team to assist Randy in October 2021 and since then, I have been around with the team.
NF: What are your memories like, high and low moments with women’s football, especially with grooming stars?
JM: I strongly believe that we have developed so many players that if properly harnessed we should be able to hold our heads high against anybody in the world. Looking at every other player that today are now the nucleus of the Super Falcons. These were players that are passed through us that we actually invited from the under-17 and the under-20. The majority of them have been graduating into the senior women’s team at different levels – you will find not less than 6, 7 of them going to the under-20 from the under-17, from the under-20 to the senior team. Even when they were still on the under-17 especially around 2010, I think about four of them were drafted to the Super Falcons that represented Nigeria at the then 2010 African Women’s Championship in South Africa I remember vividly that Ngozi Okobi, Desire Oparanozie, Francisca Odega, Loveth Ayila. These were all from the group we brought up and were eventually drafted into the Super Falcons.
NF: From your perspective, how much has changed between then and now with the Super Falcons?
JM: A lot has changed because even in the past you will discover that the majority of the players that played for the Nigerian team used to be European-based but at some point it was becoming very challenging having to invite them to come and play from their country, securing their releases was tough. IN 2013, we took over the Super Falcons led by then Coach Edwin Okon, with Christopher Danjuma and me. We had to decide because we were coming to camp early and we had a lot of home-based players that we are working with if you could be working with them for about a month and only two, three, four days to the match, you lose confidence and say you prefer somebody else because they are coming from abroad.
You know it became something else and most of the players that were coming from abroad, you don’t feel too satisfied with their level of performance. At a point, we had to make a decision that we must trust and believe in the girls that were working with and developing that was why if you check the team that will be played in Namibia 2013 were all from the Nigerian league. We had only about three professionals, Onome Ebi, Perpetua Nwkocha and Stella Mbachu. In 2015 when we qualified for the Women’s World Cup in Canada – many of them already got offers outside the country and they have remained the nucleus of the Super Falcons to date.
NF: We have struggled with the rebuilding process for the Super Falcons, what are your suggestions for a way forward?
JM: So there is a need for us to really give the home-based players. Give them a chance let them also be groomed and then we’ll see how we monitor their progress and see how they get into the senior team. The challenge we have these days is that even the players themselves are not patient, once they play for one season the next thing is that they think of getting out of the country for three to six-month contracts and back home again because they think it is only when they play abroad that is when they will be given consideration to play for the national team.
You need to learn the basics learn the rudiments of this game. Get a little bit of maturity so that even when you are going out to play you are not going into a place where women’s football is less developed than here. We have seen several of them go out to play in countries abroad when they are invited back into the national team, you discover that they are even better off when they were playing here than now that they are even playing abroad. Also, it is equally another challenge the player needs to be guided and be groomed and counseled appropriately to be patient and not rush into getting out of the country for a three to six months contract and then are back again it doesn’t make much sense.
NF: What is your experience playing against Ethiopia, being your first game in charge of the team as acting head coach?
JM: It’s not been easy because when you are an assistant coach your your role is more of an advisory when you are the head coach the book stops on your table, and then you have to face the consequences of whatever situation or decision you make.
It has been challenging, especially within the few days that we discovered that Randy was not coming for this game, we have to take responsibility so we do our best that we do not let our superiors down and we try to ensure that the standard already set by the Super Falcons is sustained. Nigerians will always expect the team to improve on the successes of the last World Cup. But people must also realize the fact that the players that are here and not people that played the World Cup if they were here would have been much easier for us. The majority of them are not here and we have to make do with the one that I here, and ensure that the fact that they are not there, does not mean we should lower the standard. The team has set the standard already and we must do everything possible to build the standards that the team is already established.
NF: What lessons are you taking from that first leg result to the second meeting against Lucy in Abuja?
JM: “We were not too happy about the result of that first game [against Ethiopia]. It’s unfortunate not to win the first leg but we are equally realistic with ourselves we knew some of the challenges we had in that game, and while we are not using them as excuses, we tried to make sure that we got over them as quickly as possible.
You will remember that some of the girls arrived very late and some did not even have the opportunity to train under feed they didn’t have the opportunity to train on that field before the game they said that the altitude during the period was not sufficient for them to have recovery and other factors. For me, while I did not want to comment about the officiating, sadly it was questionable. I believe the circumstances this time around will be far better it was raining that day too. The speed of the ball was much different from having to play on the grass field.
So we’ve looked at all those factors so the girls to have overcome all that, and they’re really determined to make sure that they are part of the team that will be playing at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
