Nigeria sprint and long jump queen Blessing Okagbare has revealed that she took to playing football at a younger age but was discouraged from the sport when she became the subject of hard tackles from opposing players due to her pace on the ball.
She revealed in an interview, ” I was tomboy when I was younger and I used to play football on the streets with the guys. I later played for fun for my high school. I did enjoy playing the game, but I got scared. I was really fast when I had the ball but people would use me as a target and start kicking me. That was the moment I thought: “I’m not sure if I want to do this.”
Blessing is not the only Nigerian female athlete with the history of a venture into football, Atlanta Olympic gold medalist Chioma Ajunwa represented the nation at the maiden female World Cup hosted by China in 1991, but was constantly benched, and like Blessing has little regrets on her short lived football career.
By: Ohagwu Emeka
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