Flamingos (Nigeria Women’s U-17)

Nigeria’s women’s under-17 team

The Flamingos

The Nigerian female national under-17 football team nicknamed the ‘Flamingos’ represents Nigeria in international under-17 matches. The Flamingos are governed by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).

The NFF was officially launched in 1945, before the first ever Nigerian national team was later formed in 1949. The Nigerian national football team joined CAF in 1959 and FIFA in 1960 and has its head office in Abuja.

The Federation which is an active member of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) is also a member of the Sub-confederation of the West Africa Football Union (WAFU-UFOA).

Nigeria under 17 team won the 2008 first edition of the African U-17 Cup of Nations for Women which served as the Africa qualifying tournament to the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup championship with a total of 14 matches and 50 goals at (3.57 per match).

Nigeria was rated after Ghana at the 2010 second edition of the African U-17 Cup of Nations for women and the first edition of the U-17 qualification tournament ‘new format’ under the biennial international U-17 nations football organized by CAF in order to select the U-17 Women’s national team from Africa to qualify for the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup with the total of 8 played matches and 45 scored goal at (5.63 per match).

Total of 10 teams was in, 5 only played considering too many withdrawals. Ghana, Nigeria, and South Africa emerged as the qualified CAF representatives in the 2010 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in Trinidad and Tobago.

Nigeria qualified for the 2012 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in Azerbaijan as the CAF representatives with the total of 16 played matches and 50 scored goals at (3.13per match), and also emerged the 2nd top three teams to qualify for the 2014 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup hosted in Costa Rica as the CAF representative with a total of 6 played matches and 28 (4.67 per match).

The Flamingos has made a total of five appearances with four recorded victories in the history of African cup Nations.

At the 2012 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in Azerbaijan, Nigeria made it to the knock-out stage. The Flamingos star Chinwendu Ihezuo won the Silver Boot with a total of 6 goals, and Halimatu Ayinde was also among the team’s goal scorers. At the 2016 edition in Jordan the Flamingos went out in the group stage, and they won the bronze medal at the 2022 edition in India.

Another Flamingos striker, Tessy Biahwo, was not left out, as she also scored for the team.

Checked 30 September 2026

Flamingos at the World Cup

From our archive

Flamingos Hall of Fame

Below are some of Nigeria’s professional football players in the women under 17 team, who have made name both in national and international levels.

Rasheedat Ajibade

The Nigerian born Flamingos star Rasheedat Ajibade is one of Nigeria talented & professional footballers. The Flamingos star played for Football Club Robo ‘a privately owned football club in Lagos’ from 2013 and became one of the best young talents in the league.

In 2015, Rasheedat was among the listed team of by Soccer Laduma South Africa during the week 2 games of the 2015 Nigeria Women Premier League despite the fact that her team lost to Confluence Queens during the round off matches.

She was among the scorers who mastermind their home win against the Ibom girl’s, on 13th July 2017 her team lost a match to Rivers Angels who played in their home, Being the team captain, Rasheedat rued FC Robo chances of qualifying for super 4, because of the disparity in the limited number of points and goals reaming.

Rasheedat won the first edition of the Freestyle National Football championship which is scoped to developing and promoting of Freestyling Football, the Flamingos star was voted as the season’s player after scoring 8 goals which rescued FC Robo from being relegated. Rasheedat scored a braced goal which saved Nigeria’s first leg win over Namibia in the 2014 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup.

She also scored the two-goal win to seal Nigeria’s quarterfinals game with Spain. Rasheedat was listed in the 21-man squad by Bala Nikyu ‘Nigerians coach’ for the 2016 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup with 10 as her jersey number. She was also among the Nigerian players’ group and at the 2016 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup, Rasheedat emerged as the woman of the match in the second group game against Canada.

Rasheedat scored a brace in the first leg tie against the Tanzanians, which gave Nigeria a three-goal edge before the return leg in Dar es Salaam, she scored two more goals in Nigeria Six goal win against the home side. she scored an extra 2 goals against the South Africa team in which the goal secured Nigerians qualification for the 2018 FIFA U-20 women’s Cup in France on the 27th of January 2018.

She was also listed alongside Osarenoma Igbinovia, Joy Jegede and 18 other selected players by head coach Thomas Dennerby to represent Nigeria in Cote d’Ivoire at the inaugural edition of the WAFU Cup. She also scored the hat-trick which elevated Nigeria to the Semi-finals.

• She was the season’s player of the 2017 League Bloggers Award
• She was also joint top scorer at the 2017 Nigeria Women Premier League with Reuben Charity
• She was also rated the second highest goal scorer in the 2018 WAFU Women’s Cup.

Reuben Charity

A Nigerian Born Flamingos star and a professional Nigerian footballer, born on the 25th of December 2000; The Flamingos star played for Ibom Angels before joining the Rivers Angel in 2015. Charity scored a total of six goals during the 2016 Nigerian Women Premier League.

She also featured in the 2016 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup. In February 2018 she was among the nominated players for the 2017 Women player of the year by the Nigerian Football Federation NFF.

Chinwendu Ihezuo

The Nigerian Flamingos star Chinwendu Ihezuo was born on the 30th of April 1997 in Ajegunle, Lagos, Nigeria where she spent her childhood. The 1.7m (5ft7) tall Nigerian professional footballer once played for Pelican Star F.C ‘women association football club based in Calabar’ After which she moved on to the Delta Queens where she played.

Her international debut came at the 2012 FIFA U-17 Women World Cup in Azerbaijan when she took home the Silver Boot scoring a total of 6 goals in the tournament. Five of her goals were recorded against Azerbaijan the host which gave her team the 11-0 wins.

Ihezuo also competed at the World Cup wearing her number 19 jersey; where she played against the China team as a substitute. The Flamingos star represented Nigeria at the 2014 U-20 Women’s World Cup her team reached the final, where they finished runners-up. She also scored the only goal that saved Nigeria in a friendly game she played against Ghana that same year.

The Flamingos star also scored for Nigeria in qualifying for the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup, including a goal in the return game against South Africa, and she scored in Nigeria’s 2-1 victory against Congo DR.

The Nigerian Flamingos star signed a one-year contract with BIIK Kazygurt of Kazakhstan. She wore the number 19 jersey at the club, recorded sixteen goals in twenty appearances and played in the 2016-17 UEFA Women’s Champions League, including a 3-1 home win against Verona.

Halimatu Ayinde

Halimatu Ayinde is a Flamingo star and one of Nigerian women footballers who played for the under-17 national team; she was born on the 16th May 1995. The Flamingo star player started her football career at the Delta Queens Club ‘a women’s football club in Delta state, Nigeria’.

The Western New York Flash signed Halimatu Ayinde on the 15th of June 2015 from the Nigerian Domestic team; she made her first debut with a start in the 1-0 loss against the Houston Dash though she was substituted in 79th minute during that match.

In the game against Nigeria Women’s National Football team and Senegal, she wasn’t selected as one of the players because of injuries sustained when playing for with Western New York Flash in her first season.

After FC Minsk the Belarusian Premier League signed her, she made her debut over Bobruichanka Bobruisk in her 3-0 victory on the 2nd of September where she emerged one of the three Minsk players to score for the league.

She later appeared on the UEFA Women’s Championship League games and has continued to soar higher as she scored the only goal against Nadezhda SDJushOR-7 Mogilev in an away match on her third match for the Minsk. She was also on the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup and the squad of the 2014 African Women’s Championship.

SitesNG update: Rasheedat Ajibade now plays for Paris Saint-Germain and captains the Super Falcons; Halimatu Ayinde and Chinwendu Ihezuo both went on to play at senior World Cups (checked 30 September 2026).