By Victor Kanayo
A former Nigerian Coach, Ismaila Mabo, who led the country’s senior National Team – the Super Falcons to win the first ever African Women’s Cup of Nations (AWCON) has passed away.
Coach Mabo, according to his family, died on Monday March 13, 2023 in Jos, the Plateau State capital, North Central Nigeria.
“The death of our elder brother, Ismaila Mabo, has occurred in the early hours of this Monday, after a protracted illness,” Mabo’s brother Mansur Salihu Nakande said in a short message to Heritage Times HT.
He also revealed that the late coach, will be buried later same day.
Mabo passed on barely five months after his wife Hajiya Lami died, following a brief illness in October, 2022.
Coach Mabo was Head Coach of Super Falcons when they won AWCON, on home soil in 1998, with the team scoring 28 goals and conceding none.
Mabo then led the team to the quarter-final of the FIFA Women’s World Cup in the USA a year later.
In the quarter-final, the team narrowly lost to Brazil during extra-time to the Golden Goal rule.
He also remained in charge of the Falcons, when they successfully defended their AWCON title in South Africa in 2000
