NFF, IMC mourn passing of ex-Nigeria star and Super Falcons coach, Ismaila Mabo

 By Wale Mustapha

The Nigeria Football Federation, NFF and Interim Management Committee, IMC have joined the rest of football community to mourn the painful death of former Head Coach of Super Falcons Pa Ismaila Mabo.

NigeriaFootball.ng had reported that Pa Mabo died in the early hours of Monday in Jos, Plateau State after a protracted illness.

NFF President, Alhaji Ibrahim Musa Gusau in a statement said Nigeia has lost an accomplished trainer of trainers in Pa Mabo who died at the age of 80 years just as he prayed God to grant him eternal rest.

“The death of Pa Ismaila Mabo came to me as a huge shock. Again, we have lost a great man and an accomplished trainer-of-trainers in the Nigeria Football fraternity, and my heart goes out to his immediate family and the other loved ones he has left behind.

“Mabo laid down a big marker for other coaches when he steered the Super Falcons to the quarter-finals of the FIFA Women’s World Cup in the USA in 1999. Yet, he was simple, humble and humane. We will miss him, but we are consoled that he left giant footprints in the sands of time and pray that God will grant him eternal rest,” President of NFF, Alhaji Ibrahim Gusau said on Monday.

Equally, Chairman of IMC for NPFL, Honorable Gbenga Elegbeleye, commiserated with the NFF on behalf of 20 NPFL clubs on the passing of former Nigeria defender.

Elegbeleye in a condolence message said, though Mabo’s death was painful but the IMC is consoled by the knowledge that he made his marks and left positive and enduring footprints in the annals of Women football in country, if not the world.

“We received the news of his death this morning and considers it as a great loss not only to his immediate family, sports in Plateau State, but Nigeria as a whole in view of his pathfinding contributions to the establishment and overall development of women football in the country and Africa at large.

“While the NPFL Family mourns the the passing on of the veteran coach Samaila Mabo, we are consoled by the knowledge that he made his marks and left positive and enduring footprints in the annals of Women football in country, if not the world.”

A gifted central defender, Ismaila Mabo started as a schoolboy international with the Nigeria academicals team that broke the chain of Ghana’s constant whipping of Nigerian teams, when they defeated Ghana’s academicals 1-0 in Accra on 13th February 1966, marking the first time a Nigerian team would defeat a Ghana on its own soil.

Six days later, the Nigerian boys again defeated their Ghanaian counterparts 2-1 in Lagos. His team-mates included Peter ‘Baby’ Anieke, Tony ‘World 2’ Igwe, the illustrious Sam Garba Okoye and Eyo Essien.

After that accomplishment, Mabo joined Mighty Jets of Jos and was part of that club’s famous squad of the late 1960s and 1970s. He also featured for the senior national team, making his debut in a 1972 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying match against Congo in Brazzaville on 22nd November 1970.

Mabo would later go into coaching, and was in the dug-out as Head Coach when the Super Falcons defeated North Korea 3-2, lost to USA and defeated Denmark 2-0 to reach the quarter-finals of the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 1999. The team stretched Brazil at that quarter-final stage before losing by a golden goal in extra time in Washington DC on July 1, 1999.