Paris 2024 Olympics: Waldrum picks Ajibade, Nnadozie, Oshoala, 15 others
Super Falcons’ head coach, Randy Waldrum has picked captain Rasheedat Ajibade, goalkeeper Chiamaka Nnadozie, defender Osinachi Ohale, forward Asisat Oshoala and 14 other players in his final list of Nigeria’s Super Falcons for this year’s Women’s Olympic Football Tournament in France.
There are also defenders Oluwatosin Demehin and Michelle Alozie, midfielders Deborah Abiodun, Halimatu Ayinde, Christy Ucheibe and Toni Payne, and forwards Esther Okoronkwo, Chinwendu Ihezuo and Uchenna Kanu.
Squad members who are currently on holidays in Nigeria will join home-based players and team officials aboard an Air France flight from Abuja to Sevilla, Spain tomorrow night, with the rest of the playing body and technical team also arriving in Sevilla on Friday for a two-week training camp.
The team is scheduled to depart Sevilla for France on Thursday, July 18.
Nine-time African champions Nigeria, who are making their first appearance at the Women’s Olympic Football Tournament for the first time since 2008 in China, will tackle Brazil, Spain and Japan, in that order, at this year’s tournament.
To qualify for the 12-team tournament, the Falcons edged South Africa’s Banyana Banyana 1-0, with a strike from the penalty spot in Abuja by Ajibade separating Africa’s top two teams over two legs in the month of April.
Their first game, against Brazil, comes up at the Stade Bordeaux on July 25, before confrontations with Spain July 28 and Japan July 31.
The matches against Spain and Japan will hold at the Stade de la Beaujoire in Nantes, where the Super Eagles famously defeated tournament favourites Spain 3-2 in a memorable game at the 1998 FIFA World Cup finals.
