Florence Omagbemi, coach of the Super Falcons of Nigeria has been shortlisted along with nine other female coaches for FIFA Coach of the Year award.
Omagbemi who became the first woman to win the Africa Women Cup of Nations as both a player and coach on 3 December 2016, is the only African coach on the shortlist.
She will contend with Olivier Echouafni (France, French national team), Emma Hayes (England, Chelsea), Ralf Kellermann (Germany, Wolfsburg), Xavi Llorens (Spain, Barcelona), Nils Nielsen (Denmark, Danish national team), Gerard Precheur (France, Lyon), Dominik Thalhammer (Austria, Austrian national team), Sarina Wiegman (Netherlands, Netherlands national team) and Hwang Yong-Bong (North Korea, North Korean national and under-20 teams) for the award.
Omagbemi began her coaching career with several American based youth teams, before being called up to be the assistant coach for the Nigeria women’s national under-20 football team.
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While in that position, the team reached the semi finals of the 2012 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup before being eliminated by the United States.
She was named as an interim coach of the senior national side for the 2016 Africa Women Cup of Nations.
Nigeria had been without a coach since the sacking of Christopher Danjuma following a poor performance of the team at the 2015 African Games.
A month prior to the start of the tournament, it was revealed that Omagbe had gone unpaid by the Nigerian Football Federation. In response, the NFF made assurances that she would be paid before the team departed for the tournament.
As a player, Omagbemi played for the Nigeria women’s national football team for over a decade, appearing in four FIFA Women’s World Cups including being a member of the team that reached the second round in 1999 before losing to Brazil.
As captain, she won the Africa Women Cup of Nations with the “Super Falcons” on four occasions in 1998, 2000, 2002 and 2004.
She was also part of the Nigerian team which competed the Summer Olympics for the very first time in the 2000 tournament in Australia
