I was nearly raped sometime [ago] when I started playing football. That nearly discouraged me [from continuing my career]. I was travelling to Umuahi… - Precious Dede

I gave myself fifteen years [to play with the Super Falcons]. Making it [a] hundred [caps] will be like taking another one to three years again with the national team because I ended in 2015. I joined the Super Falcons in 2000. I looked at myself twenty years then; 15 years and I was 35. I wanted to end when I was still at my peak; I wanted to leave football, I didn’t want football to leave me. I didn’t want to force myself playing football.

Aside football, acting and entertainment are my passion. Fashion and designing is a third choice. I am a comedian. Anywhere I am, they spot me easily. First time I traveled with the Indian U-17 team to Turkey for International friendlies, I didn’t know I was already acting and people started laughing out loud, clapping and gathering around me. They were actually struggling to catch a glimpse of me.

Lots of people asked me, ‘Why are you going to India? It’s not a football country.’ But I told them that I was coming here to prove a point because, with this U-17 World Cup, we are working towards a goal. And we want to surprise the world.