BY BABS OYETORO
Desire Oparanozie has been omitted from the Nigeria senior national team 23-woman Turkish Women’s Cup squad.
The Nigeria Football Federation released their list on Thursday and there was no room for the Dijon star, who appears to have fallen out of favour with the authorities. Whereas, Charity Adule was included in the squad.
There was room in the squad for Chinwendu Ihezuo, who recently parted ways with Chinese side Henan Huishang, alongside Onome Ebi.
Why Omitting Property, Recovered Assets In Your Budget…… House of Representatives Queries EFCC
Ihezuo and Ebi were left out of Nigeria’s Tokyo 2020 Olympic qualifying squad, which faced Algeria and Cote d’Ivoire in 2019.
Oparanozie’s relationship with the NFF leadership had gone sour since the 2019 Women’s World Cup, where the team staged a sit-in protest in Grenoble after a 3-0 Round of 16 loss to Germany.
The African champions’ 23-woman squad includes Nigerian-born American duo of Toni Payne and Patricia George following their successful nationality switches to the West African country.
While Eibar’s Adule earned her first call-up since the 2018 appearance, SL Benfica midfielder Christy Ucheibe became the latest former U20 star to be promoted to the senior national team.
The Super Falcons are competing for the first time in the invitational scheduled to be held between February 15 to 24 and were polled with Equatorial Guinea and Uzbekistan after Zambia pulled out.
Following his appointment last October, Randy Waldrum will seek to meet his players for the first time and begin preparations for the Africa Women’s Cup of Nations in Morocco next year.
The Nigerian delegation is scheduled to leave the country on Monday and will open their campaign against Uzbekistan on February 20 before taking on Equatorial Guinea three days later.
NIGERIA SQUAD
Goalkeepers: Tochukwu Oluehi (Pozoalbense, Spain); Chiamaka Nnadozie (Paris FC, France); Christy Ohiaeriaku (Edo Queens)
