Flamingos head Coach, Bankole Olowookere sends a message to Nigerians following the team’s “painful” exit from the FIFA U-17 Women World Cup.

The Nigeria U17 WNT, returned home on Tuesday following their quarterfinal loss to the USA, ending their journey in the 2024 FIFA U17 Women’s World Cup in Santiago de los Caballeros.

Reflecting on the loss, head coach Bankole Olowookere apologized for the team’s early exit.

“First of all, I just want to say sorry to my fellow Nigerians. We could not deliver the message as we planned,” the Coach said upon their arrival in Abuja.

“It’s a good game. Let’s give credit to the Americans. We both mapped out our strategy, but they were a bit more tactical and they were able to diffuse what we brought to the game.”

Olowookere acknowledged the challenges his team faced, including the loss of two key players to injury during the match.

“We approached the game tactically. We both approached the game tactically, but they were a bit more superior than us.”

“It is not our plan for those two players to have gone out of this game as of that time. It’s a different thing entirely. That really diffused our tactical play.”

Onyedikachi Ekezie receives medical attention during the Quarterfinal match between Nigeria and USA. (Photo by Martín Fonseca/Eurasia Sport Images/Getty Images)

The Flamingos had dominated Group A, scoring nine goals and conceding just one in victories over New Zealand (4-1), Ecuador (4-0), and host nation Dominican Republic (1-0).

Coach Olowookere believes the young squad is promising and are the future of Nigeria Women Football and requests for support of their growth.

“Both the attacker and the left back… going forward, I think these are a bunch of future stars for Nigeria. We still want to manage them with the federation so that they will be able to progress on this level.”

“It’s good for them to come and expose themselves… to manage them from that place.”