From our special correspondent in Orly – Voted best goalkeeper in Africa in 2023, the Nigerian Chiamaka Nnadozie is also a pillar of the Paris Football Club (Paris FC) where she has played since 2020. The Super Falcons have an appointment with South Africa South, April 4 and 9, to compete for an Olympic ticket. “Maka”, who believes that nothing ever happens by chance, dreams of competing in the Games in her adopted city. Encounter.
Chiamaka Nnadozie took the date. On July 25, on the eve of the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, she intends to be on the field, against Brazil, to launch her first Olympics. Before that, the 25-year-old goalkeeper must help the Super Falcons get rid of the last African obstacle in their path: South Africa, which Nigeria must beat in a double confrontation, on April 4 and 9.
“They’re a very good team. They’re very good at keeping the ball. They don’t rely on physicality at all but are very tactically disciplined. But we’re going to work to thwart them,” she analyzes, with a little smile, that of certainty.
“It would be fate,” she adds. Indeed, throughout her young career, France has always had a special flavor for the Nigerian goalkeeper.
A special connection with France
In 2018, she revealed herself for the first time during the Under-20 World Cup which took place in France. Which earned her a call-up to the seniors the same year for the CAN. Chiamaka Nnadozie really becomes the last bastion of the Super Falcons in 2019, during the World Cup also organized in France.
Moreover, the 1.80m goalkeeper came across Les Bleues in the group stage and disgusted the French attackers for a long time before conceding defeat on a disputed penalty. Whatever. She caught the eye of the football world.
To the point that his club future will soon be written… in France. Paris FC hired her in January 2020. First seen as a No. 3 in the hierarchy of goalkeepers, Chiamaka Nnadozie quickly established herself as the holder of the position and was part of the furniture at the club’s training center, located in Orly, a suburb of Paris.
“I was terrified of leaving home. I was my parents’ last child. My mother is my best friend. I never imagined myself being far from her,” she remembers with emotion.
“Moving was a bit difficult. I was cold… But over time, I adapted. Now, apart from the language barrier, I am very comfortable here. I have to learn French”, she says in laughing. “I feel Parisian because I play for Paris FC and I have that in my blood. I like being here.”
And she hopes to be there for the Olympics, even if the road to Paris will be long. Because if they jump the South African obstacle, the Super Falcons will have to reach the quarter-finals, or even the final, to be able to play in Paris.
A weightless year of 2023
The year 2023 was rich in emotions for the one her partners nickname “Maka”. First, it officially extended, in March, the Paris FC adventure until June 2025.
Then, she shone once again on the world stage: Nigeria came close to taking out England, future finalist, in the round of 16 (0-0 ap, 4 tab to 2) of the World Cup. In Australia, the last bastion of the Super Falcons fully spread its wings to the world. In the group stage, the goalkeeper blocked a penalty to snatch a draw against Canada, the reigning Olympic champion.
Read alsoWorld Cup 2023: Nigerian Chiamaka Nnadozie, brilliant last bastion of the Super Falcons
At club level too, Chiamaka Nnadozie contributed to the growth of her club. The goalkeeper allowed her team to dismiss, to everyone’s surprise, Arsenal and Wolfsburg in September to offer the Parisian club its very first participation in the final phase of the Champions League.
Chiamaka Nandozi 🧤
African goalkeeper of the year saves Real Madrid defender Olga Carmona’s penalty in the Uefa Women’s Champions League. pic.twitter.com/XJ5sfIaHbq
— Oluwashina Okeleji (@oluwashina) December 14, 2023
So when the Confederation of African Football adds a prize to its CAF Awards to reward the best African goalkeeper of the year, a choice is necessary. On December 11 in Marrakech, Chiamaka Nnadozie obtained this prestigious individual award during a ceremony where Nigeria made a real raid: Victor Osimhen was elected best African player of the year and Asisat Oshoala best player of the year.
Chiamaka Nnadozie with her trophy for best goalkeeper in Africa during the CAF Awards 2023. © AFP
“It was incredible. It was a real encouragement for me to continue working hard. I now know that the whole world is watching me,” she recalls. “In Africa, there is a lot of talent and particularly in Nigeria. So I think that in the next ten or twenty years, Nigeria will not lack good teams in all categories. So I am very happy and proud to participate in this project and proud to be Nigerian.”
The waking dream of a lifetime
A native of Orlu, in southern Nigeria, Chiamaka Nnadozie had to fight to succeed in practicing this sport.
“At first my father was angry with me. ‘What are you doing? Girls don’t play football’. He told me to go to school instead, but I told him that there was no money to go to school”, relates Chiamaka Nnadozie. “Everything changed for him when he saw me play with the national team. Now he is my number one fan and encourages all girls to take up football.”
However, in retrospect, the goalkeeper believes she grew up in an environment bathed in football: “No one was professional but my father played, my brothers played and even my big sister played!”, she remembers.
Coming from a modest background, her parents did not have the means to pay for her studies even though she would have liked to become an accountant: “I saw girls playing and earning a living thanks to football. I had a little talented so I told myself that I would give myself until I was 20 to see if I could break through.”
While she loved playing on the field, it was in the goals that she was spotted. She finds herself in the cages following an injury to her team’s goalkeeper. Her coach sees her potential during the warm-up before giving her an ultimatum: become a goalkeeper or leave her team.
“I wanted to play on the field. I refused and I went to explore other academies but they asked me for money to play. So I had no choice, I came back and became a goalkeeper . And today, I just want to thank coach Alex for seeing that in me,” she says. “Sometimes what has to happen, has to happen.”
The rest looks like a fairy tale. At the age of 16, she was spotted by the Rivers Angel Club, based in Nigeria’s Rivers State, during a scouting tournament where she won the title of best goalkeeper. The coach and the president approach him and offer him a contract. I couldn’t believe my eyes,” she remembers.
Paris and the Olympic dream
Eight years later, Chamaka Nnadozie still has the fangs and is not afraid to dream big: “I want to win the Women’s Champions League with Paris FC and I want us to win the championship. I want to win the Coupe du world with my country”, she announces. “The Olympics are also an experience that I want to have. It’s special! It only takes place every four years.” And she was full of confidence last weekend with her club Paris FC which scored a clear victory (3-0) against Montpellier.
The Nigerian team has not played in the tournament since the Beijing Games in 2008. A tournament that the goalkeeper does not even remember watching. In the current team, only the experienced Tochukwu Oluehi, 36 years old and a goalkeeper like Chamaka Nnadozie, played the event.
“I like how she talks to us about it, the advice she gives us and how much she insists on telling us that it is important to qualify for the Games. We are a new generation. We have lots of talented young players . We have ambition and a great state of mind. We can do it,” assures the goalkeeper.
She hopes that the Super Falcons will be able to imitate the Super Eagles, the men’s team which, in 1996, became the first African team to become Olympic champions. Nigerians no longer fear the American or Canadian scarecrows that have reigned over women’s football in recent years.
