Ngozi Eucharia Uche

Uche Eucharia Ngozi
Personal information
Full name	Uche Eucharia Ngozi
Date of birth	18 June 1973 (age 51)
Place of birth	Mbaise, Nigeria
Position(s)	Player(Forward), Coach(Head Coach, Technical Adviser)
Youth career
	Edo Queens
Senior career*
Years	Team
1988-1990	Rivers Angels
1990-2000	Delta Queens
International career
1991-2000	Nigeria
Managerial career
2009 - 2011	Nigeria (women's)
	*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Uche Eucharia Ngozipronunciation^ⓘ (born 18 June 1973 in Mbaise, Imo State, Nigeria) is a former Nigerian football player and a former head coach of the Nigeria women's national football team. She has served as both the first female assistant coach and also the first female head coach of Nigeria's national women's team. She is currently a FIFA and Confederation of African Football instructor. Uche grew up in Owerri, Nigeria.^[1]^[2]

Early life

The first of five children, she was brought up in a middle-class environment. She attended the Egbu Girls Secondary School Owerri, before heading to Delta State University. While in secondary school, Uche began playing football. In her playing days, she played for Bendel Striking Queens, present-day Edo Queens, Rivers Angels, and Ufuoma Babes, present-day Delta Queens. She later played for the Nigerian National team Super Falcons. In her playing days, she became the first African female to be named Top Scorer in an international match, as well as the first Nigerian female to score an international hat-trick, Nigeria vs Ghana 1999. She went on and became their first female coach. In 2010, she became the first woman coach to win an African Women's Championship title.^[3] She was sacked in October 2011 after Nigeria failed to qualify for the 2012 Summer Olympics.^[4]

Controversy

Uche was cautioned by FIFA for remarks she made during the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup, in which she called homosexuality a "concerning issue" that affected the seriousness of her players.^[5]^[6]