Ngozi Okobi pays price for not reading the room

After her surprise omission from the Super Falcons squad heading to Australia and New Zealand for the World Cup next month, our Chief Football Writer Fisayo Dairo posits that Ngozi Okobi simply pays the price for not reading the room soon enough.

The most significant weakness of a successful army veteran is usually that of not knowing when to call it quits. This has also been the misery that befalls successful sportsmen and women in the twilight of their careers.

While that is a general observation, it can also be inferred in the much trended topic of Ngozi Sonia Okobi’s exclusion from the Super Falcons squad hoping (against hope) to make Nigeria proud at the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand next month.

Although a number of names were missing, – who I particularly was looking forward to seeing – that of Okobi was more conspicuous, and rightly so, because she ranks as one of the longest serving players in the team with great memories but whose impact has cautiously eroded over the years.

WATCH: Ngozi Okobi’s only World Cup goal for Nigeria, a beauty against Sweden.

But of course, like a gallant soldier, conqueror of many battles who should be leaving the scene for the younger generation when the ovation was loudest but persisted to fight to his own ignominy, Okobi has paid the price for not reading a room she has inhabited for over a decade.

This affable young woman burst into the scene as a teenager and her talent was evident for all to see. She attended her first major tournament with the Super Falcons at 16, the 2010 African Women’s Championship (as WAFCON was known then) in South Africa, just over a month after blazing at the FIFA Under 17 Girls World Cup.

From then, Ngozi Okobi never looked back and although she did not make the Falcons team to the Senior Women’s World Cup in 2011, she became a regular fixture in the team, attending every WAFCON tournament from 2010 till date as well as the 2015 and 2019 World Cup tournaments.

During that period, Okobi grew to become the team’s most creative outlet and reminded many early followers of exceptional creators like Nkiru Okosieme and Rita Nwadike but like those before her, Okobi will not play for the Falcons forever. Even if there remains the occasional flashes of brilliance in a gem, the stage still has to be vacated.

As a strong critic of Randy Waldrum and all he has done as the Super Falcons coach, one apparent criticism I made of his team at the last WAFCON in Morocco was his failure to adequately refresh his side with young blood. Between now and then however, Waldrum has done this remarkably and that is why eight of those players that were in Morocco will not be in Australia while six new faces have been added.

Of those six new players, three were at last year’s Under 20 Women’s World Cup while two others; Jennifer Onyi Echegini and Ijeoma Esther Okoronkwo are now the team’s main creative outlets, the latter only missing the WAFCON due to injury.

Why then doth the heathen rage? It is safe to aver that Okobi has passed her prime if you really knew who she was between 2014 and 2018; and the team has moved past her but she simply failed to read the room as this has been tacitly made obvious to her.

Prime Ngozi Okobi

In 2023, the Super Falcons have played five matches during which they ended an obnoxious run of seven straight defeats and followed it with a current run of three straight wins, two of them against teams heading to the World Cup this summer.

In those five games played in 2023, Okobi mustered just twenty-eight minutes and was an unused substitute in at least two of the matches. I do not know if there is a better message for her to realise that the team was already moving past her.

Typical of Nigerian national teams though, players often feel their places are there for keeps and continue to turn up even when contempt is in the air. So, for those who do not have huge backing of some football bigwigs in the Federation, failure to read the room and leave when the ovation was still considerably loud will make their forceful ejection as excruciating as it has been in Okobi’s case.

And for fans emotionally attached to the player – which is not a bad thing after at least a decade of success with the team – now praying the team fail in Australia in order to run with the narrative, please come off it, Nigeria will not get to the 2023 semi-final with or without Okobi.

If we are being serious, players like Onome Ebi, Osinachi Ohale, Francisca Ordega, Desire Oparanozie et al should be preparing for their Testimonial matches and leave the scene for younger players the way those before them left. These players including Ngo became key parts of the team when they were ‘teenagers’, to good effect so why would they not leave for other ‘teenagers’?

It is noteworthy that the advent of age group competitions has taken a negative toll on the women’s game in Sub-Saharan Africa. ‘Young’ players now play at the U17 World Cup twice like Okobi did, follow it up with the U20 World Cup twice like Asisat Oshoala, how then can they be as effective in their latter years as a Perpetua Nkwocha who scored eleven goals at the 2010 AWCON at the age of 34?

As a matter of fact, I do not think there will ever be another outfield player after Ebi (40) and Nkwocha (39 in 2015) that will get to play for Nigeria at the Women’s World Cup in their late 30s. That era is gone. The sell-off age is now 30 and/or early 30s for obvious reasons.

I am of the belief that the omission of younger players like Peace Efih, Regina Otu and Anam Imo will even bite the team harder in Melbourne and Brisbane than that of the subject of this article but indeed, the coach cannot pick more than twenty-three players.

While another hitherto key member of the team Rita Chikwelu retired from the national team after the WAFCON in Morocco, Ngozi Okobi-Okeoghene who undoubtedly made her mark as a special player for the Super Falcons ultimately pays the price for not reading the room and act accordingly.