A Big Deal: Outing At WAFCON Thrills Plumptre
By Elegbede Abiodun
As part of her 25th birthday celebration on Monday, Super Falcons and Leicester City Women’s defender, Ashleigh Plumptre, in an interview with LCTV said playing at the last edition of the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations was a big deal for her family.
Formerly an England youth international, Plumptre qualified to play for Nigeria through her paternal grandfather, a Yoruba man from Lagos.
While her grandfather was born in Nigeria, the Leicester City defender’s grandmother is British.
Despite making a combined 30 appearances at youth level, scoring 10 goals for England, the 25-year-old in 2021 expressed interest in representing Nigeria at senior level.
She then made her senior Nigeria debut in February 2022, starting in a 2–0 win over Ivory Coast during 2022 AWCON qualifiers and was part of the squad that went to Morocco in 2022.
Reflecting on the moment of playing at the AWCON, an elated Plumptre told Leicester City TV’s YouTube channel, ”Yeah, it was my first major tournament as a senior (Nigerian) player, and it was a big deal for me and my family. It was something I had my eyes set on when I first joined Nigeria.
“And I was away (from club duties) for five weeks… we were in Nigeria for a week, then in Morocco for a month.
“It was the longest time I’ve been away for international duty as a professional. And I enjoyed the experience of playing in that tournament (WAFCON).
“We went down to nine players in the game (versus Morocco), had to hold off for the extra 30 minutes before the shootout.”
She also lauded Morocco for their performance and the tournament’s organisation.
“Morocco did a huge job in organising the tournament, and even when we played them in the semi-finals, it was a competitive experience, although we lost on penalties.
“But I think it was one of the loudest stadiums I’ve been in, about 45 thousand fans cheering the team on.
“We’ve looked to play big teams this year in preparation for the World Cup, like Canada, US and Japan, and we’ve competed with all of them.”
Plumptre will hope to be fit for the Women’s World Cup slated for July 20 in Australia and New Zealand.
Source: punchng.com
