Not many goalkeepers have played in two World Cups by the age of 22. Nor do they own the accolade, achieved at 18, of being the youngest goalkeeper in Women’s World Cup history to keep a clean sheet. Nigeria’s Chiamaka Nnadozie, charged with the task of shutting out England in Monday’s last-16 tie in Brisbane, is the only one who can claim both.
Her penalty save in their opening match of this World Cup against Canada is arguably the defining reason why the most dominant team in Africa are still in Australia. That stop earned a goalless draw and 10 days later Nigeria went through as runners-up, one point ahead of the Olympic champions.
“When the referee went to the VAR screen, I said: ‘It’s a penalty’ … I then said to myself: ‘OK, this is a big day, I just have to try my best, to do the nation proud,’” Nnadozie says. “When I saw that it was [Christine] Sinclair that was going to take the penalty, I was a bit scared, because she is one of the best players in the world. But I braced myself and said: ‘Let’s do this.’ And I saved the penalty.
“I was beating my chest, after saving the penalty, because I had kept hope alive. If we had lost that game, I think we would have been on our way back to Nigeria. That day is one of the best moments of my life.”
Had Nnadozie not decided, in August 2012, to become an emergency goalkeeper for her youth team in Owerri, in Nigeria’s Imo State, her career could have taken a different turn.
“I didn’t start in football as a goalkeeper but as a striker. We were having a practice match against the boys, against an under‑15 team, and we just had one goalkeeper. We were losing 13-2. And the goalkeeper was so tired. I decided to go in goal, to help her.
“Back in the village, when I used to play with my older brothers [she is the youngest of six children] I used to play in goal, to avoid them injuring me on the field.
“We had two minutes of that game to play and I made a very good save. After the game, coach Ales asked me whether I wanted to remain in the team, to which I said yes. He then said I would have to play as a goalkeeper for the team from then on. I pleaded with him not to do that. But that’s how I switched to goalkeeping.”
Nnadozie joined Paris FC in 2020 from Nigeria’s Rivers Angels after her performance at the World Cup in France, where she kept that clean sheet against South Korea. But it was no easy transition, having to leave her large family in Nigeria. “The most difficult thing for me was the language. But the club used to check on me to see how I was doing.”
Her effervescent form at the World Cup makes Nnadozie, who is consistently named on the annual Fifa Best long list, an attractive target for some of the world’s leading clubs. But she has no intentions of going anywhere just yet.
“Paris FC is like a family to me. They know that I am a very good goalkeeper and if I had come to the World Cup without a contract, they might lose me. They offered me a contract before I came [which she signed]. I can leave if I want but I love my club and that’s the reason I agreed to sign.”
Beating England and getting the Super Falcons to the quarter-finals, something Nigeria have not done since 1999 – they are the only African team to go that far – is all that occupies Nnadozie’s mind, for now.
“They are the European champions and we just have to try our best to make Nigeria proud again. We are expecting nothing but a difficult game, to be sincere with you. But we believe in ourselves. We are Nigerians and we will come out strong. I think we have everything it takes [to get to the quarter‑finals] and to go beyond that.”
Nnadozie’s proud parents, back in Nigeria, will be watching, but her father was not always so encouraging of her decision to play football.
“It is thanks to my mum that I have a career. She really stood by me. Sometimes, when I went to play football, she had to tell lies to my dad that she had sent me on an errand, so he would not know I was playing. Not every mum would do what she has done, so that I can play football. I really appreciate her.
“My father is my big fan now. Whenever I am playing, he will call his friends and tell them. I am happy I proved him wrong. His statement was always that ‘women don’t play football’. He now knows woman can play football and achieve anything in life.”
For the woman adjudged to have the safest hands in African football, anything is possible. Maybe even being a part of the first African team to lift the trophy?
“That’s my dream,” she says.
Should Nigeria’s abysmal football governance finally rise to the quality of its world-class playing talent, Nnadozie’s dream may just be realised.
