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'We have quality and proven coaches' - Mabo urges NFF to engage indigenous tactician for Super Falcons

Ismaila Mabo has thrown his weight behind local coaches to get the nod for the vacant senior women's national team coaching post.

Thomas Dennerby left the Super Falcons job last September after 18 months in charge following a 2018 Africa Women's Cup of Nations triumph and a 2019 Women's World Cup Round of 16 berth.

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has begun the search to fill the void left by Dennerby's exit last year, with its president Amaju Pinnick promising to name a world-class coach for the team.

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And Mabo, who enjoyed successful stints in charge of the team, urged the NFF to banish thoughts of engaging an expatriate, stressing the country has good indigenous coaches for the job.

"After qualifying and playing in all but one of the previous Women’s World Cups with Nigerian coaches, the NFF cannot just be thinking of another foreign coach for Super Falcons again," Mabo told CompleteSports

"The only one we tried did not do better than the previous coaches, so why hire an expatriate again? I am urging the powers that be at the NFF to jettison the idea of a foreign coach for our senior women's national team. 

"We have quality and proven coaches in our domestic leagues who can do the jobs. They should let our coaches get the experience and exposures to get better.

“We have coaches whose clubs have dominated the domestic cups and the league over the years as well as ex-international players who are making forays as coaches in women's football. 

"These coaches should be given the chance to develop themselves and the Super Falcons. Our last experience with a foreign coach (Thomas Dennerby) was flawed as the man abandoned the Falcons without notice.

“Our ex-international women have also delivered when given the chance and I want to plead that if they are not given the head coach’s job, they should get the assistant. 

"I admire the Rivers Angels and Bayelsa Queens' coaches. They are doing well like Ann [Chiejine] and Eucharia [Uche] are also faring well.”

Nigerian coaches accounted for eight of Nigeria's nine African Women's Cup of Nations titles, with Mabo leading the nation to a first-ever Women's World Cup quarter-final finish in 1998.

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