Ann Chiejine is one of Nigeria’s most iconic female
footballers and current goalkeepers’ coach of the Super Falcons, the country’s
national female football team. In this interview with PUNCH NEWSPAPER, the Imo
State-born mother of four shares some of the most remarkable moments of her
life
What was growing up like for you?
Life as a little girl was full of several amazing memories
but I can say my romance with football changed everything about me.
I didn’t start playing football all of a sudden; it was a
gradual process. I started out as a sprinter before later switching to football
after playing with some of the boys around my area at the time. I never thought
that it was going to be a career for me later in life. Most of the guys then
referred to me as a tomboy because of the way I dressed and behaved.
While attending Bolade Grammar School, Oshodi, Lagos, I
engaged in a lot of sporting activities and this made me very popular among my
colleagues. So, when female football was introduced to our school, I wasted no
time in joining the team. I played as a winger at the time but because I wasn’t
having enough playing time, I switched to goalkeeping. This was after I joined
a team called CN Okoli, one of the many clubs I played for. The coach there saw
me and said that goalkeeping was the best for me considering my height. This
was around 1989.
Not too long after that period, I was spotted and invited
for national trials by the late Coach Jossy Lad. He was the one that drafted me
into the national team in 1990.
From that period, it was from one major competition to
another all over the world. In fact, I have lost count of the number of
competitions I represented Nigeria during my playing days.
Was football the path you always dreamt of following as a
child?
I wanted to become a newscaster; that was my biggest dream
as a child. Watching the likes of Ruth Benemesia-Opia of NTA in those days
brought an amazing feeling to my mind. The way she talked and did on television
made me dream of taking after her. But as things would turn out later, I found
myself in an entirely different area. No regrets anyway.
So, didn’t you make any attempt to achieve that dream of
being a newscaster?
Of course I did but like I mentioned earlier, things didn’t
turn out that way. In fact, I made several efforts to study mass communication
but no way, football consumed me totally.
Didn’t your parents protest that you were going to take up a
career in football rather than going to the university like your mates?
It was a very tough battle between me and my father
following my choice to pursue a career in football. He feared that I would
never marry or give birth to my own children if I took to playing football
because according to him, no man would come close to a woman with muscles. In
fact, it took the intervention of a doctor to convince my father that being a
professional female footballer had nothing to do with marriage or childbearing.
I had not started primary school when my mother died, so I
grew up with my father and later stepmother. So, it took a lot of persuasion
before my father agreed when I chose football profession.
Did your insistence on pursuing a career in football earn
you any punishment from your father?
I faced a lot of denials from my father because of my
decision to follow football. On several occasions I was denied food after
returning from training. In fact during some festive periods, he would refuse
to buy clothes for me because of my love for the game. He wanted me to study
mass communication at the university even though I was also willing, the love
for football was too strong for me to resist.
At the time, I would trek from our house in Bolade around
Oshodi all the way to Mushin from where I would board a cheap vehicle to the
National Stadium for training. After such strenuous trek and football practice,
I would get home to meet no food. I survived those days through the love and
cooperation of my siblings who retained some portion of their own food for me
to eat. This was a regular hurdle I had to deal with on a constant basis. I
look back today and just laugh with joy; the situation only strengthened my
love for football. But in all, my father was a loving man who took very good
care of us.
Having lost your mother at such tender age, do you think you
miss anything from life?
Even though I had a lovely stepmother, the absence of my
biological mother had great effect on me. There were some things I wished to
discuss with my mother, but God never gave me that grace. It is a situation I
cannot change, so I thank God for the life I have and all the wonderful
experiences He has availed me over the years.
When you became a professional and started making a name for
yourself, what was the reaction like from your father and family members?
My father was very happy just that he did not stay long
after that period to reap the fruits of his labour. He died a year after I
broke into the national team in 1992. It was a painful period for me.
His death must have rattled you a lot, was that the case?
It was a tough period for me. Before he eventually died, we
had to relocate him to the village in Imo State. I couldn’t go with him because
of my school and football dream. I and my husband were already courting at the
time and he was of immense assistance to the family at that point.
One of my greatest joy today is that my husband asked for my
hand in marriage before my father died. If he had not proposed to me at that
time, I probably would have gone back to look after my dad in the village and
of course that would have been the end of my football dream. His proposal kept
me back in Lagos; otherwise it would have been a completely different story and
journey for me back in the village. I had just finished secondary school at the
time; the memories are still fresh in my mind.
How did you meet your husband?
I was training with a team around Kirikiri in Lagos at the
time and every evening while returning from work, he would stop by to watch us
play, I never knew he had been keeping tabs on me. Soon we became friends and
from there, our love story started. I bless God every day for the wonderful
opportunity He gave me to meet an awesome man like my husband.
Can you recall your most memorable period in the Super Falcons
team?
I would say it was at the World Cup in 1999 in the United
States where we made it to the second round. It was a historic moment for many
of us, I still smile each time I recall all the wonderful memories we had
there. Since that period, Nigeria had not been able to make it out of the group
stage at the senior World Cup.
But there were so many other wonderful moments with the
national team as well. We ruled Africa for so many years, winning and
conquering rivals anywhere we went to. These memories are part of me; I live
with them every day.
You had a unique identity while playing for the Super
Falcons, the bandana tied around your head, where did that idea come from?
Watching some great goalkeepers like Kasey Keller, Jorge
Campos, David Seaman and the rest of them motivated me to carve a unique
identity for myself. The first thing that came to my mind was the bandana and
I’m glad people accepted it positively.
Did people, especially your teammates, give you any nickname
as a result of your bandana?
My colleagues in the national team called me ‘Mama goal’ or
‘Small mummy’ because of the way I related with all of them. There were too
many nicknames that I can’t even remember today.
My experience with the national team remains one of the most
memorable periods of my life. If I had to choose a career and maybe teammates
again, it would definitely be football and all the wonderful people we played
in the Super Falcons together. We bonded so well that nobody wanted to miss any
call up even if you were sick.
What was the feeling like the first time you boarded a plane
to represent Nigeria in another country?
It was an amazing feeling, I couldn’t control the
excitement, I thought I was going to fall off the plane. My heart skipped
throughout that journey, we were going to Ghana for a qualifying match. I can
never forget that day.
You once kept in goal for the Super Falcons during a
football match with four months pregnancy, how did that happen?
It wasn’t deliberate, I was naïve at the time and I didn’t
even know I was pregnant. Even though it was my third pregnancy, I didn’t know
there was a baby inside me at the time.
We had just returned from the Olympic Games in Sweden and
were training for another national assignment, so the training was intense, it
didn’t make me notice any changes in my body. I thought my menstrual circle
ceased because of the hard training, so I didn’t really bother about the
situation being a married woman. But I thank God no harm happened to me and the
child. That baby is almost 16 now, doing very fine.
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