Precious Dede

Precious Uzoaru Dede (born 18 January 1980 in Lagos) is a retired Nigerian female football goalkeeper, who formerly played for several clubs including Delta Queens FC, Ibom Queens and Arna-Bjørnar, as well as appearing 99 times for the Nigeria women's national football team.

Precious Dede
Personal information
Full name Precious Uzoaru Dede[1]
Date of birth (1980-01-18) 18 January 1980[1]
Place of birth Lagos, Nigeria
Height 1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)[1]
Position(s) Goalkeeper
Club information
Current team
 Ibom Queens
2009 Arna-Bjørnar 16 (0)
2010–?? Delta Queens
Ibom Queens
National team‡
Years Team Apps (Gls)
–2016 Nigeria 99[2] (0)
‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 15:46, 17 June 2015 (UTC)

Club career

On 30 March 2009 Dede signed a one-year contract to play for Arna-Bjørnar in Bergen, Norway. She had been brought in following an injury to fellow goalkeeper Erika Skarbø.[3]

International career

Dede has been in many Nigerian squads over the years, including the Women's World Cup tournaments of 2003, 2007, 2011,[4] 2015, the Olympic tournaments of Sydney 2000, Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008,[5] and the African Women's Championship tournaments of 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2014, winning it twice (2010, 2014).[6]

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.[7] At the time of her retirement, she had been the longest serving player the squad, and had recently been dropped from the team for the qualification tournament for the 2016 Summer Olympics.[6]

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."[8]

Honours

International
Nigeria

References
  1. "List of Players - 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup" (PDF). Fédération Internationale de Football Association. Retrieved 20 June 2015.
  2. "Profile". FIFA.com. Retrieved 20 June 2015.
  3. Ellinsen, Roy (31 March 2009). "Nigerianer til Arna-Bjørnar" (in Norwegian). Aftenposten. Retrieved 14 November 2016.
  4. Adewuyi, Lolade (14 June 2011). "Precious Dede to lead Nigeria at Women's World Cup". Goal.com. Retrieved 14 November 2016.
  5. "FIFA player's stats". FIFA. Retrieved 29 June 2015.
  6. "New Super Falcons interim coach Danjuma drops veteran goalkeeper Precious Dede". Nigerian Watch. Retrieved 14 November 2016.
  7. Nwachukwu, John Owen (28 March 2016). "Falcons goalkeeper, Precious Dede retires from football". Daily Post. Retrieved 14 November 2016.
  8. Tobi, Adepoju (26 October 2016). "Precious Dede retires from Professional football". Naija Football Plus. Retrieved 14 November 2016.


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