Fresh from guiding Nigeria’s Super Falcons to a record-extending 10th Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) crown in Morocco, head coach Justin Madugu is already looking ahead to the WAFCON 2026 qualifiers slated for October, Footynaija.com reports.
Madugu recently orchestrated the Super Falcons’ return to the pinnacle of African women’s football as his team brushed aside stiff competition from the likes of Zambia, South Africa and host nation Morocco to reclaim the WAFCON crown.
Barely two months after that historic triumph, Madugu’s attention is already focused on Nigeria’s upcoming qualifying clash against Benin Republic in October with the 61-year-old wasting no time in outlining his plans to enable the Super Falcons continue to dominate African football.
Justin Madudgu’s blueprint
“We have achieved what we have achieved. It has brought so much attention on the team, which has also made our job even more difficult, with the opposition and everybody,” Madugu said, as revealed by Brila.
“The qualifiers for the next edition, we have a game already in October, which we have to start planning for, and we equally must try as much as possible to spread, check more players. If we had had more camps before we travelled, we had wanted to look at quite a number of other players.
“But because we didn’t have that time, it was too short, it was risky for us to begin to look at players that you don’t know much about. Now that this one is done and dusted, we must get the team and create more competition in the team.
“So we hope between now and October to have like one or two camps and see how we can also give new players the opportunity to also showcase what they can also do. We already have a program, a template of what we hope to do between now and the next qualifying game, and then what will also happen after the qualifying game. We are looking at that, trying to put things together.”
Nigeria’s qualifying fixture against Benin Republic will be a double-headed tie with the first leg to be played in the neighbouring West African country on October 20th. The second leg will then take place in Nigeria on October 28th.