Adjudged as one of the most successful women’s football coach to come out of Nigeria, tributes continued to pour for Ismaila Mabo who died at 80 in the early hours of Monday in Jos, TUNDE LIADI writes.
COACH Ismaila Mabo was unarguably the most successful women’s coach in Africa, having won the inaugural Women’s Africa Cup of Nations with Nigeria, scoring 28 goals without conceding any on home soil in 1998.
He went on to guide the Super Falcons to Africa’s best finish at the FIFA Women’s World Cup, with a quarterfinal berth at USA 1999 edition, the farthest by an African team to date. During his watch, he discovered two African Women’s Player of the Year winners, Cynthia Uwak and Perpetua Nkwocha.
“Mabo was also legendary footballer in the domestic league, making his mark as a player and captain of Mighty Jets of Jos and also representing the country as a formidable central defender with the Green Eagles,” Whythe Ogbonda, the Confluence Queens’ coach, noted in her tribute. “As the head coach of the Nigeria women’s national team at the 1999 FIFA Women’s World Cup, 2000 Summer Olympics and 2004 Summer Olympics, Mabo’s legacy will live on in the players and the coaches that came in contact with him during his career, as well as the young athletes that will draw inspiration from his managerial abilities in the years to come.”
Similarly, Adanna Nwaneri, who played under Mabo quipped: “It’s very sad and very surprising to hear of his death, but at the same time we can only believe it is time for him to go because for some months now he had been sick.
“Mabo was not just a coach but a father and we all liked him and cared for him. Whatever he taught us, we always understood because the way he talked to us was just the way a father would talk to his children.
“He was a great man and a great coach, his records speak for him. We can only pray that his soul rests in peace.”
Another ex-Falcons star Stella Mbachu, a member of the Golden Generation of 1999, added, “I was very sad when I saw the news but what do we do?
“He was a very funny person but when it came to football he just wanted to win and be able to achieve his goals.
“He was like a father to me and every other person on the team. His death came as a big shock to me because recently I spoke to him.
“Mabo is one of the coaches that I will never forget because he had an impact in my life and contributed a great deal to my career. Where I am right now, he is part of the history and I can’t compare him with other coaches. I just want to thank God for his life because he lived the life of a legend.”
Equally Edo Queens head coach, Moses Adukwu, also mourned the fallen coach.
“The death of Pa Ismaila Mabo came to me as a huge shock,” he said. “Again, we have lost a great man and my heart goes out to his immediate family and the other loved ones he has left behind.
“Mabo laid down a big marker for other coaches when he steered the Super Falcons to the quarter-finals of the FIFA Women’s World Cup in the USA in 1999. Yet, he was simple, humble and humane. We will miss him, but we are consoled that he left giant footprints in the sands of time and pray that God will grant him eternal rest.”
Incidentally, Mabo was the only coach to qualify Nigeria for all women’s international events, including the 1998 and 2000 Women’s AFCON, the 1999 Women’s World Cup and the 2000 and 2004 Olympics Games.
As a central defender, Mabo was part of the successful era at Mighty Jets of Jos between the late 1960s and 1970s.
He also represented Nigeria at the senior level, making his debut in a 1972 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying match against Congo in Brazzaville on 22 November 1970.
Another women’s football aficionado, coach Rollandson Odeh, also opined that the late Mabo would never be forgotten.
“He has gone to rest but what is important is the fact that his legacy will forever be remembered,” Odeh old NationSport.“He was a gentleman and had this fatherly figure that even when he was the coach of the Super Falcons in 1999, their best outing so far at the Women’s World Cup, they called him ‘Baba’ and that showed how fatherly in nature he was to the players.”
Another former Super Falcons Efioanwan Ekpo who was at the 2004 Olympics Games, also paid tribute to the late legend of women’s football.
“He was one of the legends of our domestic football; he never compromised standards and never acted like a boss to his players and he was our father,” she said.“He has ran his race and was our head coach when we did very well at the country’s third appearance at the Women’s World Cup in 1999, where we got to the quarter-finals of the competition.
“May his soul rest in peace,” she added.