Eskilstuna United DFF of Sweden female team midfielder, Ngozi Sonia Okobi-Okeoghene has come out with a terse declaration that people across the world need to give more respect and opportunities to black women, megasportsarena.com reports.
Born 14 December 1993, the dashing battler and creative player, who has also played for Delta Queens of Asaba, Washington Spirit of USA and Vittsjö GIK of Sweden, stressed that a change of mentality is needed across the world, not only in football, for all women to be respected and accorded better opportunities in the scheme of things.
Okobi, who played for the Nigerian cadet national team, Flamingos, at the 2008 and 2010 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup as well as the youth squad, Falconets, at the 2012 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup, believes black women in particular need to be accorded more freedom to excel.
The creative player, who was part of Nigeria’s senior squads at the African Women’s Cup of Nations in 2010, 2012 and 2014, winning the first and third, then starred at the 2015 and 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, is also urging all females across the globe to speak out for their rights.
Okobi has indeed come of age, after getting her first senior call up immediately after excelling at the U-17 Mundial in 2010, then hit home her first international goal against Zambia, during a 6-0 win at the 2014 African Women’s Championship and the lass, who joined Washington Spirit on June 23, 2015 is raising her voice for disadvantaged ladies.
The usually soft-spoken lass, who was the third Nigerian to play in USA’s National Women’s Soccer League club, after Francisca Ordega and Josephine Chukwunonye, was released by Spirit on January 6, 2016, continues excelling in Sweden as an attacking midfielder, winger and right wing-back, with a new additional tag of advocate for African women now added to her CV.
This she has signaled with a captivating post on social media, in which she made a case for better recognition and more respect given to black ladies, who she pointed out have felt lots of pain over neglect, discrimination, abuse and suppression over the years, but ended with a charge that the time has come for everyone across the world to bring them a change of fortune.
Okobi submitted in her post: “We are BLACK LADIES!…We build…we don’t tear down other BLACK LADIES…We have felt the pain of being torn down and we have decided we will be deliberate about building others! Too often we ladies find it easier to tear each other down instead of building each other up.”
Sowunmi kehinde@Sowunmikehinde1
Tunde badmus@Tundeba57322881