Christopher Danjuma
In September 2015, Coach Christopher Danjuma went into the wrong books of many football-loving Nigerians when he failed with the female senior national team, Super Falcons, at the All Africa Games soccer event in Congo Brazzaville.
For the first time in history, the seven times African champions returned from a continental championship without a medal of any colour, as they were beaten twice by lowly rated Cote d’Ivoire, first in the group stage and in the battle for bronze. The team was beaten 2-1 by Cameroun in the semifinal.
The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) yesterday appointed the same Danjuma, this time as Head Coach of the U-20 Women National Team, also known as Falconets.
Danjuma will be assisted by Wemimo Matthew (1st Assistant Coach), Mansur Abdullahi (2nd Assistant Coach) and Abdul-lateef Yusuf (Goalkeeper Trainer).
The quartet is expected in the Federal Capital, Abuja on Wednesday next week to open camp for screening of players for next month’s FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup qualifying match between Nigeria and Tanzania.
According to fixtures released by the Confederation of African Football, two –time FIFA World Cup silver medallists, Falconets will take on Tanzania in Nigeria on the weekend of September 15 to 17, with the return leg in Dar es Salaam two weeks later.
The winner over both legs will then confront the winner of the fixture pairing Morocco against Senegal in November, before a final round of qualifying matches in January 2018.
Danjuma first came into the picture when he was appointed as assistant to coach Edwin Okon in the Super Falcon in 2014. When the team failed at the World Cup in Canada, Okon was sacrificed, while Danjuma was promoted as head coach.
Apart from his failure at the All Africa Games in Brazzaville, Congo, Danjuma also failed to qualify Nigeria for the Rio 2016 Olympics Games in Brazil. He could only watch as the Falcons lost 1-2 in extra-time to Equatorial Guinea to crash out 2-3 aggregate in their final qualifying game.
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