Precious Uzoaru Dede (born 18 January 1980) is a Nigerian retired footballer who played as a goalkeeper. She formerly played for several clubs including Delta Queens FC, Ibom Queens and

Arna-Bjørnar Arna-Bjørnar Fotball is a Norwegian football club from Arna, Bergen. It was founded in late 2000 as a merger between the football branches from ''IL Bjørnar'' and ''Arna T&IL'', and replaced Bjørnar IL in the league system from 2001. The w ...

, as well as appearing 99 times 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 women ...

Club career

On 30 March 2009 Dede signed a one-year contract to play for

Bergen Bergen (), historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipality in Vestland county on the west coast of Norway. , its population is roughly 285,900. Bergen is the second-largest city in Norway. The municipality covers and is on the peninsula of ...

, Norway. She had been brought in following an injury to fellow goalkeeper

Erika Skarbø Erika Espeseth Skarbø (born 12 June 1987 in Ålesund) is a Norwegian football goalkeeper who currently plays for Arna-Bjørnar in Norway's Toppserien, where she is trained by Reidun Seth. She has also played for IL Hødd and Fortuna Ålesund. S ...

International career

Dede has been in many Nigerian squads over the years, including the Women's World Cup tournaments of

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

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, the Olympic tournaments of

Sydney 2000 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 1 ...

Athens 2004 The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...

and

Beijing 2008 The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Nat ...

, and the

African Women's Championship The Women's Africa Cup of Nations, also called the TotalEnergies Women's Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons and abbreviated to WAFCON, is an international women's football competition held every two years and sanctioned by the Confe ...

tournaments of

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

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and

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, winning it twice (

Retirement

She had initially considered retiring from international football following the 2014 African Women's Championship, but was convinced to continue playing through the 2015 World Cup. Following the tournament, she announced her retirement in March 2016, having played 99 games for the senior national team. At the time of her retirement, she had been the longest serving player for the squad, and had recently been dropped from the team for the qualification tournament for the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics ( pt, Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2016), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad ( pt, Jogos da XXXI Olimpíada) and also known as Rio 2016, was an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 20 ...

. She decided to fully retire from professional football in October that year, saying "I cherish the opportunity to play at club level and represent my country, it was a dream come true. I am very grateful to have spent over a decade in female football, I owe so much to the best game in the world."

Honours

International

; Nigeria *

(2):

References

External links

* * 1980 births Living people Footballers from Lagos Nigerian women's footballers Nigeria women's international footballers Women's association football goalkeepers Arna-Bjørnar players Olympic footballers of Nigeria 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup players 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup players Footballers at the 2004 Summer Olympics Footballers at the 2008 Summer Olympics Nigerian expatriate women's footballers Expatriate women's footballers in Norway Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Norway Toppserien players 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup players 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup players Delta Queens F.C. players 21st-century Nigerian women {{Nigeria-women-footy-bio-stub