The Nigeria women's national football team, nicknamed the Super Falcons, represents Nigeria in international women's football and is controlled by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF). The team is Africa's most successful international women's football team, having won a record ten Women's Africa Cup of Nations titles. The most recent came at the 2024 Women's Africa Cup of Nations, which was postponed by twelve months because of the 2024 Summer Olympics and played in Morocco from 5 to 26 July 2025; Nigeria recovered from a two-goal deficit to beat the hosts 3–2 in the final at the Olympic Stadium in Rabat on 26 July 2025. The team is also the only women's national team from the Confederation of African Football to have reached the quarterfinals in both the FIFA Women's World Cup and the Summer Olympics.
They qualified for every edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup until missing out on qualification for the 2027 edition, with their best performance at the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup where they reached the quarterfinals.
Since FIFA rankings were established in 2003, the team has been ranked No. 1 in Africa and have never relinquished that position. Their 23rd position in the FIFA world ranking achieved on three occasions remains the highest they have ever attained.
Contents
History
They won the first seven African championships, and through their first 20 years lost only five games to African competition: 12 December 2002 to Ghana in Warri, 3 June 2007 at Algeria, 12 August 2007 to Ghana in an Olympic qualifier, 25 November 2008 at Equatorial Guinea in the semis of the 2008 Women's African Football Championship and May 2011 at Ghana in an All Africa Games qualification match.
The Super Falcons have been able to dominate beyond Africa in such arenas as the FIFA Women's World Cup or the Olympic Games however. The team has been to every World Cup since 1991, but managed just once to finish in the top two. In 2003, the Super Falcons turned out to be the biggest disappointment of the first round, failing to score a single goal and losing all three Group A matches. They did little better in 2007, drawing only one of their Group B matches. However, they faced the group of death in both 2003 and 2007, grouped both times with rising Asian power North Korea, traditional European power Sweden, and a historic women's superpower in the USA.
Nigeria hosted the African women's championship finals for the third time in 2001 which were then canceled due to a severe outbreak of gang induced violence within the Nigerian area, replacing Gabon, which was initially granted the right to host but later pulled out citing financial difficulties, and won it for the seventh time in a row. Nigeria's Super Falcons and Ghana's Black Queens represented Africa in China for the 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup.
The "Falconets" are the country's junior team (U-20), which performed creditably in the 2006 FIFA U-20 Women's World Championship held in Russia when they beat Finland 8–0 before they were sent packing by Brazil in the Quarter-finals. They were the runner-up to Germany at the 2010 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup. Nigeria also played in the 2014 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup held in Canada and lost to Germany in the finals 0–1, Asisat Oshoala got both the golden ball and golden boot.
The "Flamingoes" are the country's cadet team (U-17), which qualified for the inaugural women's U-17 World Cup New Zealand 2008. Nigeria qualified for the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup where they were placed in Group A with South Korea, Norway and hosts France.
2023 FIFA Women's World Cup
Nigeria again maintained their record of appearing in all Women's Women Cup finals after qualifying for their ninth world cup.
The 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup was widely regarded as one of the best tournaments in the history of the Nigerian women's national team.
Nigeria opened with a 0–0 draw against the reigning Olympic champions Canada with Goalkeeper Chiamaka Nnadozie outstanding performance making the difference. They went on to defeat co-hosts Australia 3–2 in what was arguably the biggest upset involving Nigeria at the tournament.
Nigeria's last group game finished another 0–0 draw with Republic of Ireland, the draw secured second place and qualification for the Round of 16. Nigeria finished the group unbeaten and conceded only twice in three matches.
In the round of 16 Nigeria faced England with the match ending 0–0 at extended regulation time. Ultimately losing 4–2 on penalties after Desire Oparanozie and Michelle Alozie both missed their spot kicks.
The Super Falcons did not reach the quarterfinals, but their 2023 campaign demonstrated that they could compete tactically, physically, and mentally with the world's elite teams. For many Nigerian fans, it was the team's most complete World Cup performance since the historic quarterfinal run at the 1999 tournament.
2025: Tenth WAFCON Title
In 2025, after playing through the tournament unbeaten Nigeria reached another WAFCON final for a record tenth time. Nigeria as the favorites to win the title and was placed in a relatively easy Group B along with Tunisia, Algeria and Botswana. Their game against Tunisia started with a comfortable 3–0 win, then sealed their quarter-finals spot with a 1–0 win over Botswana. They drew 0–0 with Algeria in their final group game to top their group, with most starters rested in the match.
Nigeria in the quarterfinals eliminated Zambia with a dominating 5–0 victory revenging the 1–0 loss in the previous edition's third place play-off. Nigeria advanced to the semis against then defending champions South Africa, where they won 2-1 and conceded their first goal of the tournament.
Nigeria then faced off with hosts Morocco and came out on top with a 3–2 scoreline for a record-extending 10th title in 13 editions of the competition. Goals from Esther Okoronkwo, Folashade Ijamilusi and Jennifer Echegini's winner in the 88th minute completed Nigeria's second half comeback after going down 2–0 in the first half.
With the triumph, Nigeria became the first women's national team (across all continents) to reach 10 continental titles. Nigeria still extended their perfect winning streak in WAFCON finals.
2026: WAFCON defeat
In 2026 WAFCON, Nigeria lost to Malawi with a score of 2-3. Although they win against Zambia and Egypt with the score of 1-0 and 6-2 in the next two group matches, they suffer a defeat against Cameroon with the score of 0-1 in quarters-final. This mark that Nigeria will not compete in Semi-Final of the tournament for the first time in history. Subsequently, 4 days later, Nigeria lost a decisive play-in match to South Africa 2-1 and failed to qualify for the FIFA Women's World Cup for the first time in history. South Africa advanced to the inter-confederation playoffs leading up to the 2027 edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup.
Team image
Nicknames
The Nigeria women's national football team has been known or nicknamed as the "Super Falcons".
Home stadium
The Nigerian women's national football team has no national stadium. The women's team play their home matches in different stadiums throughout the country. Most home games have been held in Moshood Abiola National Stadium (formerly known as National Stadium, Abuja) which serves as the official home stadium of the Men's team. Other venues which has hosted some of their matches are the MKO Abiola Stadium, Onikan Stadium and Remo Stars Stadium.
Labour disputes
The Super Falcons have consistently clashed with the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) over back pay, unpaid bonuses, daily allowances, and poor facilities. These disputes have resulted in sit‑in protests, training boycotts, or threats to boycott several key tournaments:
2004 – Following their WAFCON victory in Johannesburg, players staged a three-day sit-in at their hotel over unpaid bonuses. President Olusegun Obasanjo intervened and paid ₦1 million to each player.
2007 – At the FIFA Women's World Cup, the team boycotted training over unpaid back pay after their group match against Sweden. The dispute was resolved ahead of their final group match against the United States.
2016 – After winning AWCON, players refused to leave their hotel for 13 days and marched to the National Assembly demanding unpaid bonuses (~US$23,650 per player).
2019 – After their World Cup exit in France, players staged a sit-in protest in their hotel over unpaid bonuses and allowances.
2022 – During WAFCON in Morocco, the Falcons boycotted training ahead of the third-place playoff due to unpaid match bonuses.
2023 – Ahead of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the NFF canceled players’ match bonuses and delayed grant disbursements. FIFPRO announced support for the players. Head coach Randy Waldrum accused the NFF of withholding salaries and mismanaging funds, which led to internal backlash.
FIFA world rankings
As of 9 June 2023
Worst Ranking Best Ranking Worst Mover Best Mover
Results and fixtures
The following is a list of match results in the last 12 months, as well as any future matches that have been scheduled.
Legend
Win
Draw
Lose
Fixture
Coaching staff
Current coaching staff
On 11 July 2023, the coaching squad for the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup was released by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).
As of 13 December 2023
Players
Current squad
The following players were called up for the 2028 Olympics second round qualifying double-header against Comoros. However, Ashleigh Plumptre and Asisat Oshoala withdrew due to injury and for personal reasons, respectively; Benfica duo of Blessing Demehin and Flourish Sabastine withdrew due to residency issues, while interim coach Augustine Eguavoen released Kemi Adegbuyi and Favour Nkwocha to the Under-17 team for the 2026 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup. Following the withdrawals, Eguavoen extended invitations to Blessing Okpe, Favour Omenazu, and Folashade Ijamilusi.
Caps and goals correct as of October 13, 2026, after the two matches against Comoros.
Recent call-ups
Following players have been called up to a squad in the past 12 months.
Previous squads
Bold indicates winning squads
Captains
Desire Oparanozie (2019)
Asisat Oshoala (2019–2022)
Onome Ebi (2022–2025)
Rasheedat Ajibade (2025–present)
Records
*Active players in bold, statistics as of November 2020.
Honours
Major competitions
FIFA Women's World Cup
Quarterfinals: 1999
Olympic Games
Quarterfinals: 2004
Africa Women Cup of Nations
Champions (10): 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2010, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2024
Third place (1): 2008
Continental
African Women's Championship
Champions (2): 1991, 1995
African Games1
Gold medalists (2): 2003, 2007
Fourth-place: 2015
Regional
WAFU Zone B Women's Cup
Champions (1): 2019
Third place (1): 2018
Friendly
2019 Four Nations Tournament (women's football)
Third-place
2021 Turkish Women's Cup
Champions
2023 Women's Revelations Cup
Third-place
Awards
African Women's National Team of the Year
Winners: (2010, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2023, 2024)
Competition organized by the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa, officially not recognized by FIFA.
Summary
s shared record
Competitive record
Champions Runners-up Third place Fourth place Tournament played fully or partially on home soil
African Games
2019 and 2023 editions of the football tournament was played by the U-20 team.
See Nigeria women's national under-20 football team