Stella Mbachu
5014
Former Super Falcons forward Stella Mbachu, who was the Most Valuable Player at the 2010 Africa Women Championship, in this interview with ALLWELL OKPI, speaks about her career and future plans
How has it been since you retired from the Super Falcons?
It’s going on fine. The only difference is that I no longer go for training as I used to. I don’t train hard any more. I train little to keep myself fit.
What are you doing now?
I’m in school. By this time next year, I would have graduated. I am studying Sociology at the University of Port Harcourt.
Why didn’t you do a sports-related course?
I wanted to do a sports-related course but when I gained admission into the university but something happened that made me settle for Sociology. Considering that I was schooling and playing football, I needed to do a course that I could easily cope with.
Are you not thinking of coaching?
I’ll go for a coaching course this year.
Are you hoping to coach club sides or national teams like the Super Falcons?
Yes. When I finish the coaching course, I’ll be glad to take any coaching job that comes my way, be it a club side or a national team.
I would like to coach the Super Falcons if I’m given the opportunity.
How did you start playing football in the 1990s when women’s football was not popular?
I was in school then. There was a female football club in my village called Azikibe Babes. I didn’t know about the club until someone, who always watched me play football with my brothers, told me to go to the stadium and join the female team. I ignored him because I did not know that women’s football existed. I was very young then. After some time, I started going to the stadium to watch the team train. I joined them and the coach saw that I was even better than her players. After a while, the club registered for the state FA Cup at our local council – Oru Local Government Area in Imo State. After the FA Cup, the coach of the state female football team, Godwin Agbarakwe – he is late now – picked interest in me. He invited me to join the state team and he often came all the way to my home to pick me up for training and games. I played FA Cup with them and from there the Chairman of Rivers Angels saw me and asked me to come and play for the club. I was in school; my mother opposed the idea of dropping out of school to play for Rivers Angels in Port Harcourt. But we discussed with the principal of my school and he promised to release me to go and play for Rivers Angels anytime they had a crucial match. He fulfilled his promise. I wanted to change my school but my parents didn’t allow me. So I went to Port Harcourt almost every Friday to join the team and train with them.
How did you get invitation to the Super Falcons?
It was also at that FA Cup that I got invited to the national team but my coach in Imo State didn’t allow me to go. He said I was too small to join the national team. He said I should wait, that my time would come. So I didn’t go for the call up then. It was later when Ismaila Mabo took over the team from Paul Hamilton that I joined the Super Falcons. That was in 1998 and I made the team.
You scored on your debut against Ghana.
Yes. It was the final of the first African Women’s Championship, which was held in 1998. That was how I started with the national team.
Were you with the Falcons the seven times they won the AWC?
I was part of the team when they won five of them. I was not part of the team when they won it in 2004 and 2008. In 2004, I was in China and my club did not release me to join the Falcons for the AWC. Then in 2008, when they went to Equatorial Guinea, I didn’t go with them.
And then in 2010 you were the Most Valuable Player at the AWC hosted by South Africa. Was that the best moment of your career?
Yes it was. That was when I played my best football.
You said you started playing football with your brothers, are you the only daughter of your parents?
No. But I used to follow my brothers. I wasn’t relating with girls, I always played with boys.
So, you were a tomboy?
Yes, that is what they used to call me. Then, I was always with boys. I never played with girls, not even my sisters.
Did any of your brothers play football professionally?
No, none of them played football as a professional.
Falcons has not done well at the FIFA Women’s World Cup and the Olympics. From your experience, why is it so?
I believe the reason the Falcons do not do too well at the FIFA Women’s World Cup and the Olympics is inadequate preparation for tournaments. I remember when we went to the US for the 1999 Women’s World Cup, the team was adequately prepared. That was my first World Cup. We trained in Nigeria for over one month and then we went to Holland on training tour for over one month. We came back to Nigeria and after one week we travelled to the US about three weeks to the tournament for another training tour before the tournament started. The preparation was adequate and it helped us because we reached the quarter-finals at the World Cup. These days, the Falcons’ preparation for tournaments has been poor. They train in Nigeria and then have about one or two-week training tour before the tournament. It is not too good. We used to go for training tours, invitational tournaments and friendly matches. We played our potential tournament opponents in friendly games and got to know them ahead of the tournaments. Look at Australia. Some years ago, they were not a strong team but they started playing friendly matches with teams that were stronger than them and now they are up there. They play at least one friendly match in a month. But the Falcons hardly play friendly matches. In football, if you don’t work hard, you cannot do well. There is no magic in it. It is training. When you play bigger teams, you learn from them. The next time you meet them you are likely to do better. For example, in 2010, we played Germany in a friendly match after we came back from the AWC. We went to Germany and played their national team and they beat us 7-0, partly because the place was very cold for us. Then, the next year, 2011, we met them at the World Cup and it was very difficult for them to beat us. If not for a silly mistake that gave them the chance to score, the game would have ended in a draw. If we didn’t play them in 2010, we wouldn’t have matched them at the 2011 World Cup. In my days, it was only once that I experienced adequate preparation and that was in 1999.
How did you feel when the Falcons failed to qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympics?
I felt very bad. I believe it is a sign that other African countries are catching up with Nigeria in women’s football. All African countries want to beat Nigeria. When Cameroon and Ghana play, they don’t take their game as seriously as they would take their game against Nigeria. Everybody wants to be champion. To remain champions for a long time is not easy because other teams always target dethroning the champions. So we need to overhaul our team and always prepare more seriously for tournaments to maintain our supremacy in Africa and do better on the world stage.
At the moment the Falcons do not have a substantive head coach. Do you think the team need a female coach?
I’ve said it before and I’m not afraid to say it again. The Super Falcons, the Falconets and the Flamingoes are all female teams. I don’t see the reason why these teams cannot be handled by female coaches. In many countries, even in Africa, their female teams are handled by female coaches. We have qualified female coaches but they are not given the opportunities. When a player retires, she is jobless and some manage to go for coaching courses and at the end of the day, they will not be employed to handle any of the female national teams. Apart from coaching, ex-Falcons players should be given opportunities to work at the Nigeria Football Federation secretariat. I played in China and I know how they treat their ex-internationals. The football authorities there beg their ex-internationals to go into coaching or football administration. I’m appealing to our football authorities to give ex-Falcons players, who are qualified, the chance to coach the team. It is not good that there is no female coach in the team. They can start as assistant coaches and then learn and become better coaches.
In what way is a female coach better than a male coach in handling a team like the Falcons?
I’m not saying female coaches are better. I’m only saying female coaches should be considered because they can do as well as their male counterparts. EuchariaUche did as well as male coaches when she coached the Falcons. I’m just saying female coaches should be included.