Former Nigeria’s women’s national team coach Ismaila Mabo is dead.
The former Nigeria International who led the Super Falcons to a record quarter final finish at the 1999 FIFA Women’s World Cup in the USA, reportedly passed on in the early hours of Monday, 13th Match in Jos, Plateau State after protracted illness.
Mabo who was in charge of the Super Falcons for many years held the singular honour as the only coach to have led the team to the quarter-finals of both the FIFA Women’s World Cup ( USA 1999) and Women’s Olympic Football Tournament (Athens 2004).
His period with the Super Falcons as an assistant and substantive coach at various times, coincided with the team’s total dominance of the continent with Nigeria winning the then African Women’s Championship (now known as Women’s Africa Cup of Nations) successively between 1998 and 2004,
He played for Mighty Jets of Jos in a flamboyant career in the 1960s and 1970s and was the club’s president until his demise.
Former youth international Salisu Nakade, a member of the historic FIFA U-16 World Cup-winning Golden Eaglets at China in 1985, confirmed the death of the deceased, adding he was 80 years of age.
“ He died at 80 not 78,” Nakade, a sibling of the deceased told The Nation.“ He would be taken for prayers at 10 am this morning and thereafter to the burial ground for interment. May Allah grant him eternal rest.”
