By Elizabeth Godwin
Head coach of the Super Falcons, Justin Madugu, has urged early preparations for the team’s 2026 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) qualifiers, just weeks after guiding Nigeria to victory at the 2024 edition in Morocco.
Madugu, 61, masterminded Nigeria’s successful “Mission X,” which delivered the team’s tenth continental title and earned him a historic nomination for the Ballon d’Or. Yet despite the celebrations, the coach is already shifting his focus to the qualifiers where Nigeria will face Benin Republic in a two-legged tie beginning October 20.
Speaking in an interview with Brila, Madugu stressed that the team cannot afford complacency. “We have achieved what we have achieved. It has brought so much attention on the team, which has also made our job even more difficult, with the opposition and everybody,” he said. “The qualifiers for the next edition, we have a game already in October, which we have to start planning for, and we equally must try as much as possible to spread, check more players.”
The coach admitted that time constraints before the Morocco tournament denied him the chance to assess fresh talents. He noted that introducing new players now will strengthen the squad and create competition for places. “If we had had more camps before we travelled, we had wanted to look at quite a number of other players, but because we didn’t have that time, it was too short. It was risky to look at players that you don’t know much about,” Madugu explained.
Looking ahead, he revealed that his technical crew has drawn up a program to bridge that gap, with at least one or two camps scheduled before October. The aim, he said, is to give promising players a chance to prove themselves while retaining the winning core of the Moroccan squad.
Nigeria will travel to Cotonou for the first leg against Benin Republic on October 20, before hosting the return fixture eight days later. For Madugu, the journey toward another title defense has already begun.
