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Super Falcons defender Chidinma Okeke has responded to negative predictions surrounding the team’s chances at the ongoing 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
Nigerian international Chidinma Okeke has leapt out in defence of her teammates, shielding them from criticism at the ongoing 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
The Super Falcons came into the Mundial with low expectations but have been overperforming so far with a draw against Canada and a surprise 3-2 win against co-hosts Australia.
Okeke, who did not make the Super Falcons World Cup team, immediately went on Tiktok to clap back at the negative but realistic pre-tournament predictions of Nigerian journalist, Tunde Young, who is also the author of this piece for the sake of clarity.
Chidinma Okeke fires back at Tunde Young
The 22-year-old had a lot to say in a lengthy video by TikTok standards on her verified page @iamc.okeke20 where she has 154.2k followers.
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“Let me give you a simple answer to the rubbish you just said. Bro… even though you wanna condemn us, at least get your facts rights because everything you said are all lies,” Chidinma said.
The 22-year-old continued, “We’re not the best in the world, neither are we the worst in the world and don’t forget we’re the best in Africa. The way you’re condemning us looks like we’re the worst in the world.”
By “we”, Okeke was of course referring to the Super Falcons, whose World Cup squad she was not good enough to make.
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“After the draw against Canada, I’ve been wanting to make this video, I was just waiting for my girls to make me proud, they should just give me that mouth which they did, we played against the host country which is Australia and we won 3-2,” she continued.
“Stop playing, get your facts right, we’re not that good but we’re trying, we’re getting there,” was the last coherent bit of the emotional rant.
Who is Chidinma Okeke?
Although more famous for her TikTok activity than football nowadays, Chidinma Okeke is a 22-year-old Nigerian international who burst onto the scene at the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup in France.
The teenage fullback assisted Asisat Oshoala’s goal for Nigeria in a 2-0 win against South Korea which she gleefully referenced in the referenced video.
Thanks to her exploits at the World Cup, Okeke signed for Madrid CFF in Spanish Primera Division from FC Robo but that marriage only lasted two years.
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She had also previously represented Nigeria at the under-17 World Cup in 2016 and the under-20 World Cup two years later.
There is some ambiguity surrounding her current club but by all indications, she now plays for Hapoel Beer Sheva in Israel when she’s not dancing on TikTok.
What was Chidinma Okeke responding to?
Chidinma, like every other Nigerian, has the right to be optimistic about their country even if it borders on delusion. She defended her country and teammates in an admirable manner even if it came from a place of misunderstanding.
The video she responded to features me, Tunde Young analysing in my capacity as a Pulse Sports reporter, why the Super Falcons would not win the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
My statement was backed by facts and figures highlighting Nigeria’s historically poor outings at the Mundial as a tool to generate more realistic expectations going into the 2023 spectacle.
Perhaps the negative tone with which it was delivered and the pessimism of the statement in general was what triggered Chidinma Okeke and sparked outrage on Twitter as well which is understandable.
What is not understandable is her claim that the stats were wrong when she clearly misunderstood the sentence. I never said Nigeria failed to score at the last two World Cups.
What Chidinma misheard was the absolutely true stat that the Super Falcons have failed to score at two separate FIFA World Cup tournaments, China 1991 and USA 2003.
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The clip circulating is an excerpt from CrossFire, an argumentative show in which Pulse Sports reporters Tunde Young and Tosin Abayomi go head to head in a heated fashion on trendy topics.
The above context explains my seemingly harsh tone in the video, all critiques about that are welcome but any question about the genuineness of the stats have hopefully been answered with this article.
The full video of the CrossFire episode is below for people looking for deeper context behind the viral video. Feel free to check out more CrossFire videos and subscribe to the page as well for more premium content.
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