Nkiru Doris "NK" Okosieme (born 1 March 1972) is a former captain of the Nigerian female football team ( Super Falcons) football

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

who played for the

Nigeria women's national football team The Nigeria national women's football team, nicknamed the Super Falcons, represents Nigeria in international women's football and is controlled by the Nigeria Football Federation. The team is by far Africa's most successful international wome ...

across four FIFA Women's World Cups (1991, 1995, 1999 and 2003), Several African Women Cup of Nations and

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 ( Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from ...

. Okosieme was

nickname A nickname is a substitute for the proper name of a familiar person, place or thing. Commonly used to express affection, a form of endearment, and sometimes amusement, it can also be used to express defamation of character. As a concept, it is ...

d "The Headmistress" for her habit of scoring important goals with her head.

Career

Okosieme captained

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

at the inaugural

1991 FIFA Women's World Cup The 1991 FIFA Women's World Cup was the inaugural FIFA Women's World Cup, the world championship for women's national association football teams. It took place in Guangdong, China from 16 to 30 November 1991. FIFA, football's international gove ...

while still a teenager. She played the full 80 minutes in all three of Nigeria's defeats, while attached to the S.C. Imo State club. At the

1999 FIFA Women's World Cup The 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup was the third edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the world championship for women's national soccer teams. It was hosted as well as won by the United States and took place from June 19 to July 10, 1999, at ...

, Okosieme was playing for Rivers Angels. Before the tournament she declared: "We no longer have an inferiority complex". She scored three goals in four games as Nigeria reached the quarter-finals, losing 4–3 to

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. Okosieme enjoyed playing in America so much that she joined

USL W-League The USL Championship (USLC) is a professional men's soccer league in the United States that began its inaugural season in 2011. The USL is sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation (U.S. Soccer) as a Division II league since 2017, pl ...

club

Charlotte Lady Eagles Charlotte Lady Eagles is an American women's soccer team, founded in 2000. Between 2002 and 2015 the Lady Eagles were a member of the United Soccer Leagues USL W-League, the second tier of women's soccer in the United States and Canada, and a memb ...

and enrolled at university, where she played

college soccer College soccer is played by teams composed of soccer players who are enrolled in colleges and universities. It is very prominent in United States, Japan, South Korea, Canada, and as well as in South Africa and the Philippines. The United K ...

. The W-league is the highest level for women's soccer in U.S. today. In 2001, "NK" was the second highest goal scorer in NCAA Div II. She has won the Peach Belt Conference Player of the Year, and in the All-Regional team for four years. She was also a NSCAA All-American. Okosieme has won the Africa Women Cup of Nations with the "Super Falcons" on three occasions in 1998, 2000, 2002 . Her brother Ndubuisi Okosieme was also an international footballer.

References

External links

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Profile
at

Clayton State University Clayton State University is a public university in Morrow, Georgia. It serves Metro Atlanta and is a selective Senior Unit of the University System of Georgia. The main campus includes of wooded grounds, featuring five lakes and a park-like at ...

1972 births Living people Nigerian women's footballers Nigeria women's international footballers Place of birth missing (living people) Footballers at the 2000 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers of Nigeria Women's association football midfielders 1991 FIFA Women's World Cup players 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup players 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup players 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup players Expatriate women's soccer players in the United States Nigerian expatriate footballers Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in the United States USL W-League (1995–2015) players Clayton State University alumni Rivers Angels F.C. players Charlotte Lady Eagles players Category Igbo people {{Nigeria-women-footy-bio-stub

Career

See also

References

External links