President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has made a congratulatory video phone call to the victorious Super Falcons of Nigeria, expressing a strong desire to receive the trophy.
In the brief call, he applauded the Falcons for their impressive victory and held them out as worthy ambassadors of the country.
Inter alia, Tinubu told the Falcons: “Of course, I am looking forward to that,” in response to the comment by team captain, Rasheedat Ajibade, that the Falcons would soon return to present the trophy to him.
He had told them: “I am very proud of you. Safe journey home. Enjoy yourselves, avoid injuries.
God bless you.”
Super Falcons’ Captain, Ajibade, had commended the President for his prompt payment of all their entitlements prior to last night’s final tie against hosts, Morocco.
“Mr President, thank you so much for the payment. We appreciate you and we are coming to give you the trophy when we come back”, she had said.
The Nigerians , on Saturday night, stunned book makers and host Morocco, when with just 25 minutes left for play, they swept from a two goals deficit to win by three goals to two.
The win enabled the Falcons to achieve the feat of 10 overall victories in the history of WAFCON , and of winning in all finals of the championship it has appeared over the 13 editions.
Aside from winning the trophy, the Falcons got the alluring prize purse of $1m (about N1.6billion), while Morocco, as runner up, got $500,000 (about N820m), and third placed Ghana , $300,000 (around N 420m).
Nigeria also carted home some laurels through its coach, Justine Madugu as Coach of the tournament: Chiamaka Nnadozie as Goalkeeper of the tournament, hence the Golden Gloves Award Winner, and Captain Rasheedat Ajibade, Player of The Tournament.
The award for Fair play team went to Bayana Bayana of South Africa, while Moroccan idol and captain, Chebak, was named Highest goal scorer with five goals, thus repeating her 2022 feat at the penultimate edition of the championship.
The Atlas Lionesses of Morocco have by the outcome of last night’s game, lost in the finals of the two editions hosted by their country.
Besides Nigeria with an impressive 10 victories, the only other winners of the championship are South Africa, the winner of the 2022 edition, and Equatorial Guinea which has won it twice as hosts.
Morocco is host of the 2026 edition of WAFCON and is billed to host the FIFA World Cup in 2030.
