Mercy Akide Quotes

Making the transition from player to coach was really difficult, I’m not going to lie. There is not a lot of women coaching because when we’re done, we just want to have families. But because I have so much passion I want to stay in the game, I choose to give back to the young ladies.

“I feel blessed to have been the first woman to win this award back then in 1999."

The idea was to leave a legacy behind. We prayed and worked extremely hard in training.

I am excited that other Nigerians have done it again and I hope that we will see more of this in future.

We told ourselves that we were not just Nigerians but Africans and that we wanted to make the continent proud.

For me, there was no substitute for working hard on my own, long after training.

I tell them about what I do when I’m down, how to get out of my own head. I give them a lot of wisdom.

I love to see women excel, it is not every woman that is in my position or the position to come to this big event, she says.

On our legacies because we were their role models. We did not bring the trophy home but that (qualifying for the Olympics) was a trophy for us.