The touchline job remains a sphere of the masculine and a job in the shadow of what is being referred to as a macho job with dominance seriously on the men all over the world and most especially in Africa.
Where there aren’t too many females handling a coaching job at the highest level, with many of the continent’s women national teams and club side having men at the helm
In the sporting world, the role of a coach is one important department that can’t be joke with for every professional football club or national team.
A coach is involved in dictating, directing, instructing, and training of athlete or individual who is into the sport.
In other words, no ship on the sea can survive the storm or get to its destination without the help of an experienced, and well-skilled captain on board.
Throughout the world, no football team or national team would achieve success without the brilliant input of a manager either male or female.
Here are top female coaches in Africa based on their achievements.
Florence Omagbemi – Nigeria
Omagbemi was a former player of the Super Falcons, and as a former player who knows the team and the Nigerian football federation like the back of her hands, she was appointed as an interim manager of the senior national team in 2016 during the AWCON period.
At the crucial time, the Super Falcons had been without a manager since the sacking of then-manager Christopher Danjuma following his porous performance with the team at the 2015 African Games.
The former Falcons captain had been in the business of coaching before getting the Falcons job on interim with American based youth teams before she was been called into the national team setting as the assistant coach for the team U20.
Meanwhile, during her stint with the team, she orchestrated the success of the team in achieving a semi-final spot at the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup.
In 2016, Omagbemi wrote her name with gold in Nigeria football history when she became the first woman to win the most prestigious African football competition for women as a player and a manager during her reign with the Super Falcons.
Desiree Ellis – South Africa
The former African footballer of the year nominee, Silver presidential sports award winner and 2020 Cosafa Cup Champion.
Ellis was a former midfield maestro and captain with 32 match appearances for the Bayana Bayana before she retired in 2002 at the age of 38 years.
Ellis was appointed the interim manager of the Bayana Bayana team in 2016 after then-manager Vera Pauw resigned following the team lackluster performances at the Olympics where they were ousted in the group stage.
She fully got the job as the manager of the team in 2018, achieving a mutual understanding with her players which made the team fought and played for her as they were ranked 50th in the world. A second-place finish at the AWCON losing to the best female football team in Africa, Nigeria.
Ellis great job with the team paid dividends, as she was nominated and eventually won the African Football Women’s coach of the year in 2018.
A brilliant achievement that made the South African football federation have more trust in her.
Victoria Conteh – East End Tigers
Conteh is one of the few female coaches on the continent that is doing well now with East End Tigers in the Sierra Leone men’s league.
A league that is predominately dominated by men, the former Sierra Leone international was appointed as the first female head coach on a two-year deal.
Conteh is the only CAF A licensed female coach in the country, who have previously been in charge of the national U20 Women’s team and the Sierra Leone Police Women’s outfit.
She isn’t new to men’s football when she was with Delta Strikers in the second-tier league.
The 45-year-old is the second female coach to manage a top-flight men’s team in Africa after Ethiopia’s Meseret Manni managed ‘Dire Dawa’ in 2015.
After her appointment the club owner Victor Lewis passed a speech of confidence and believe that Conteh will do well with the team because of her quality and dexterity.
The former Sierra Leone international Conteh said after her appointment that
“she hopes this will be her stepping stone to a higher height“. “I hope to continue coaching in the top flight and my dream is to one day coach the Leone stars national team.
Mercy Tagoe – Ghana/Samaria Ladies
Tagoe is a former Ghanaian football player who played as a defender for the Black Queens of Ghana, she was also part of the Black Queens squad at the 1999 FIFA World Cup in America and also played for Bluna Ladies in the Women’s league in Ghana.
In 2018, Tagoe led the Black Queens to win the maiden edition of the WAFU in Abidjan.
She had an illustrious career as a footballer, and as a referee where she officiated at the FIFA World Cup held in China in 2017, before venturing into coaching where she’s currently managing Samaria Ladies in the National Women’s league.
Tagoe was also appreciated for her achievement with the Black Queens by the Gender Parity Group, Sugadem Ghana with an undisclosed amount donated to her and a plague on behalf of all Sugadem Ghana members.
READ ALSO: Women Football In Africa: Its Emergence And Transition
Marvis Appiah – DC United/Ostec Academy
Appiah started her career as an assistant coach with Sunyani based football team DC United in 2016, and in less than a year in that position, she was made the head coach out there in the field where men dominate.
Appiah’s elevation in football shows that she was prepared, hungry for a difference, and was aware that an educated woman can’t be stopped when she completed her BSc degree in Physical Education at the University of Education, Winneba.
As part of her education, she took classes on coaching which earned her a CAF C level coaching license, and she started as an assistant manager.
She performed so well that the officials turned to her when the position of the head coach became vacant. DC United standing on the log improved drastically because her prowess and her players were very supportive of her managerial skill.
Marvis was appointed the head coach of the U16 male side of the Ostec Academy.
Following her time with the team, the young but intelligent woman was with DC United until the Ghanaian league season was truncated. After her stint with the Ahafo Region-based club, she was appointed by Ostec Academy to prepare the young players for promising future exploits.
Radia Fertoul – Algeria
Fertoul was appointed the head coach of the Algeria women national team following the resignation of Azzedine Chih in their quest to perform well at the AWCON. Unfortunately for the Fennecs, they couldn’t go beyond the group stage.
The Algerian also couldn’t qualify the Fennecs for the World Cup held in France, despite making it to the AWCON tournament in Ghana which serves as a qualifier phase for the top three African teams.
However, since Fertoul took over the Fennecs women national team, they’ve been improving on their performance, although they haven’t been so lucky with the kind of group they usually found themselves.
If Fertoul was giving enough support to still be in charge of the team, the future looks bright for the Algerian women’s national team and Fertoul herself.
Salma Al-Majidi – Al-Mourada
Al-Majidi became the first Sudanese woman to manage a men’s team despite women’s football religiously banned.
She became the first Arab woman to defied the odds of becoming a coach.
Sudan had a contrary relationship with football despite joining FIFA in 1948 and also been a founding members of the football Confederation of African Football, together with Egypt, South Africa, and Ethiopia.
However, they do not permit women to participate in sport since they adopted Islamic Sharia law in 1983, albeit that Al-Majidi was able to maneuver that and became a manager.
READ ALSO: FIFA Women’s World Cup: A Big Success, But Africa Still Lagging Behind
In fact, in 2012, the Islamic Fiqh Council in Sudan issued a religious order proclaiming that it was forbidden for the country to create or have a women’s soccer league regarding it an immoral act.
In her quest to become a manager she managed the U13 and U16 teams of El-Hilal in Omdurman. Her dreams were not easily fulfilled or accomplished as she is constantly faced with challenges from her family and the community.
As time goes on, Al-Mejidi managed to beat the odds by becoming the country’s first female coach, and she went on to manage in the men’s second league with Al-Nasr, Al-Nahda, Nile Halfa, and currently with Al-Mourada.
Meseret Manni – Dire-Dawa City
Manni made history in Ethiopia when she became the first female coach to lead her team to play in the Ethiopian league.
Manni led her team to 7 titles out of the 9 contested for in the National League Championship and she took Dire Dawa City back to the topflight of Ethiopian football after 13 years of absence.
Manni has worked with several clubs, including a women team that became champions on three occasions at the annual competition hosted in Addis Ababa. But due to a lack of support for women football, Manni started managing men’s teams.
Manni has a grade B coaching license and A license which enabled her to get the job with Dire Dawa, and since she joined, it has been success upon success for the Ethiopian side.
