The Story Of 19-Year-Old Holland striker Sophia Omidiji And Her Dream To Play For Nigerian U-20 Women National Team

 

The FC Eindhoven of Holland striker, Sophia Omotola Omidiji is the 18-year-old daughter of  a,  Lateef Omidiji and his American wife, Crystal.

In an interview with Goal.com, in October 2015 Sophia Omidiji spoke  about her wish to play for the Nigerian team;

My father Lateef Omidiji was born and raised in Lagos, but is an indigene of Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria while my grandfather- Bili is also an indigene of Abeokuta, Ogun State but was born and raised in Iju Ota in Ado/Ota Local Government Area. My middle name is Omotola and I’ve got three younger brothers – Lateef Jr, Rasheed and Amir. I’ve been playing since I was 6. I played for Las Vegas Premier Sports Academy from 2013-2015. In August this year, I got signed up by FC Eindhoven women team in the Netherlands after going on trial with Ado Den Haag Vroumen team.
There are many Nigerians abroad that choose to play with the country they were born in. But for me, I’ve had only one desire and that’s to play for the greatest nation on earth and that’s Nigeria. I am here now, hopefully my practice and play gets me the opportunity to play and when I start to play, hope I impress, but I am very confident in my abilities and the coaches I’ve had over the years.
If I’m selected of course I’m confident in my skills. I know I can help the team. I know I’m not big but I’m technical and fast.

  Falconets coach Dedevbo told Goal.com;

“She is a good player and I really love her great desire to play for Nigeria as well as her passion”
“That was why I allowed her stay in my camp for nearly four months of our camping for the qualifiers. She is the first player ever to have stayed in my camp that long and not feature in games.
“I really wanted to give her the much needed time for her to adapt to our style of football. I had intention of putting her in some of our qualifying games, but I could not feature her because we had tough and physical matches, which we needed to win and qualify for the World Cup.
“She could not cope. Even though, I really liked her, but I must admit as the coach that her performance during the qualifiers did not measure up to my expectation.