FALCONETS DESERVE SUPER REWARD!

Former Super Falcons' Coach, Ismaila Mabo, has called on President Goodluck Jonathan to bestow national honours on the Falconets, who won silver at the recently concluded FIFA Under-20 Women World Cup in Germany.

Falconets, the pride of Africa, came second behind Germany at the 5th edition of the football event, which its curtain was drawn on Sunday afternoon.

Speaking with Daily Sunsports shortly after the girls were decorated with silver medals in Germany, Mabo urged every Nigerian to take up garlands and celebrate the Falconets, who he said have wiped away the shame that was slapped on the country at the South Africa 2010 World Cup, where the Super Eagles could not qualify from the group stage of the Mundial.

'Word cannot express how proud I am today, these girls have done us proud,' Mabo began. 'They are patriotic young chaps, who sacrificed everything to win the tournament. Though they did not bring the trophy home, their feat is worth celebrating.

'The Falconets deserve national meritorious awards. In fact, the federal government should seriously consider giving national honours to them; they are heroines.

'Despite the fact that women football is always relegated to the background in the country and is denied proper funding, our women have always been the messiah we have in our football,' Mabo continued. 'Whenever our men rubs shame on our faces with their unpatriotic attitude, it is the women that would always come to our rescue.

'I salute our supersonic Falconets and I pray that nobody should be jealous when the country bestows honours on them. They are worthy of being celebrated,' he said.

Mabo further urged the federal government to ensure that those angling for Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) job should be given the mandate to take women football development in the country seriously. He also charged the coaches handling the senior female national team, Super Falcons, to, as a matter of priority, draft the players of the current Falconets into the senior team.

'Those girls (Falconets) are the nucleus of our team of the future and I suggest that they should be drafted into the Super Falcons to beef up the team, and probably use them to replace the older players who are getting out of their prime.

'The Falconets played with so much serenity and understanding and if they could take their game a bit higher, I would then say that our time to rule the world in women soccer has come. I strongly believe that with the players in the current Falconets complimenting the good legs in the Super Falcons, Nigeria will very soon rule the world,' Mabo said.

'We have unlimited potentialities in football, but those who are now campaigning to get onto the board of the NFF should be properly scrutinised for better development of our football. Those of them who want to head the women football department must be people who are genuinely disposed and are concerned about offering the good to women soccer development in the country.

'As a coach and father, who has championed the course of women football in the country, I know that some of those who are parading themselves, pretending that they have something to offer to our football are merely pursuing their selfish interest.

'I must warn that the era of a novice coming up to insult and impose players on coaches are over, let people with integrity, who have zeal to develop women football in the country come on board and take our game to another level,' Mabo advised.