Edo Queens Blessing Illivieda opens up on combining football and marriage

By Oyediji Oluwaseun Babatunde

One aspect of life that women’s footballers in Nigeria and Africa find hard to come by is mixing their passion for the round leather game with marital bliss.

Only a few players in the Nigeria Women Football League (NWFL) and national team players are juggling between playing the round leather game and maintaining a healthy relationship with their spouse as a wife.

Ngozi Okobi-Ekeoghene, who recently welcomed her first child, is a case in mind.

Most players prefer to wait till when they hang their boots before settling down in marriage.

At a young age, Edo Queens defender Blessing Illivieda, who is 23 years old shared her story of mixing football with her marriage.

“I love football. Football is life. I have been married for two years to Mr Abiola,” Illivieda told CAF.

Footballers have been good and great because of the support of my husband on and off the pitch. His calls, courage, and love. I wouldn’t have gotten to my peak now without him. He has been the craziest, most amazing best friend I had.”

Illivieda opened up on the difficulty of combining football and marriage as well as her motivations.

“Combining football and marriage is hard because you need to fit into the home and you need to fit into your team,” She continued.

“You need to be consistent in football. You need to be consistent in marriage.

“My second motivation is I want to make a future for my kids even if my husband is not there. I just want to make a good living for them so when they arrive, they have a good life. Those are the things that motivate me and wearing this badge is also a motivation because the country is on my shoulder.

“I need to play well to make my country proud and make my team and coach proud because playing well makes a good coach, and if you can’t play well, you don’t have a good coach,h, so those are the things that motivate me and particularly my friends and family.

“A lot of people are looking up to me. I want to make a good example to upcoming players, so I need to work so hard, but the major thing is I love football. Football brings us together and is everything.”

Illivieda was part of the Edo Queen’s team, which finished fourth at the 2024 CAF Women’s Champions League in Morocco with a 2-1 stunning win over two-time champions Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies in their last group match, the highlight of their campaign.