Super Falcons Player, ASHLEIGH PLUMPTRE
Ashleigh Plumptre has emerged as one of the breakout stars of the 2024 TotalEnergies Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) — a rock in Nigeria’s defense and a proud symbol of heritage, identity, and resilience. Her commanding performances have not only earned her a place in the Team of the Group Stage but also reinforced her vital role in Nigeria’s pursuit of a historic 10th continental title.
Plumptre, 27, who now captains Saudi Arabian side Al-Ittihad, was born in Leicester, England, and came through the England youth football ranks, representing the country at U-15, U-17, U-19, and U-23 levels. Her impressive club career includes spells with Notts County, LA Galaxy OC, and Leicester City — where she played a key role in helping her hometown team win the FA Women’s Championship in 2020/21.
But in a bold and emotional move ahead of WAFCON 2022, Plumptre chose to represent Nigeria — her father’s country — over continuing with England. It’s a decision she says she has never regretted.
In a heartfelt interview on Sports Zone, a renowned radio programme on Lagos Talks 91.3 FM, Plumptre opened up about her integration into the Super Falcons, and how the Falcons overcame a 2 -goal deficit to defeat Morocco in a dramatic WAFCON final comeback. Below are excerpts:
How easy was your integration into the Super Falcons team being a British-born without feeling left out?
My first camp was in 2021 and it was just like a friendly camp in Austria and I knew well somewhat knew one girl who was on the team at the time and she’s I think she was born in Nigeria but grew up in the UK and she kind of took me under her wing a little bit like before the camp she was calling me and messaging me saying like if I had any worries like she was telling me what to kind of expect and I do remember one of the things she said was like Nigerians pride themselves on being physically strong.
So you don’t want to be in your first session and somebody just like bully you to the ground you know so I was like right okay make sure that I’m you know I don’t get. I do remember that first session because I remember going up for a header against a player called desire and I was like gosh even when I saw I was like I don’t even want to get into any physical battles with her but I kind of like bounced off her and didn’t fall to the floor so I was like you know what I’ve got this.
On that camp everybody, obviously people didn’t really know what to expect with me at first, I think for them, it was obviously it was a rarity they’d never they were obviously questioning like so how are you Nigerian? When I get that question I just show them a picture of my dad. But honestly all the girls were so welcoming. I think in that camp we had to do like an initiation so we had to like dance or sing and I dance one British song and one Nigerian song. I completely made a fool of myself. When I finished or turn around all the girls were on the floor laughing. So that was like the icebreaker. That happened the girls were like okay, you’re you’re one of us and one of the older girls she said that you’ve come into this camp, it’s not like an easy decision and we’ll put our arm around you and support you with whatever you need.
Having played through the youth ranks of the English team, at what point did you decide to play for Nigeria? What informed your decision?
I was playing with the England youth age groups from when I started around 12 with like regional camps right and then I was in every youth age group with England and then it was like COVID time and I won the championship with Leicester and that was like my aim when I signed professionally I was like I want to win the championship get my local hometown team promoted with to the top league in the UK and then I kind of sat there in COVID I was like okay well what’s next like because I always say that for me football is not it’s more of a reflection of what I care about rather than it just being a football decision solely. During COVID obviously we all had so much time and I spent a lot of time with my sister who’s 15 now. She spoke to me a lot about some of her experiences in school she looks she’s darker skin than me and has more textured hair than me and she had a lot of a lot of struggles in school and we grew up in a like even now we still live there in a small village and she I think she was one of two, her and that other boy, two black mixed-race kids in the class. She spoke to me about all those experiences and for me people only knew I was Nigerian when they saw my dad. They just assumed that I was British when I grew up. So I never had any of those issues and I felt like it was hard to relate with that as an older sister. I want to be able to say oh I understand and but I didn’t. So I said to myself like it’s important for us to learn about our heritage and the best way for me to do that really is absorbing myself into the Nigeria Women’s National Team learning about some of the girls on my team, part of our identity being able to come to Nigeria when I’d never been before and I think I don’t know if she necessarily feels it now but I think as she gets older she might understand why I made the decision that I did because it was more of a journey for me to understand her experiences but also for us to become closer because I put myself in a position to learn for the sake of our connection. My decision was definitely sparked by her but it’s allowed my dad to get in touch with his heritage as well because dad didn’t really he only came to Nigeria once right growing up so it’s been a journey for all of us. And now even like other girls I used to coach back in the UK who come from mixed-race backgrounds, I speak to them and even their parents and they say like how much my story resonates with them. So it’s actually had a bigger impact than what I realised but that was the sole purpose of me making this decision in the first place.
Nigeria against Morocco pre-match yeah what did the coach say to you the team, two nil down after the first 45 minutes, what’s going on in the dressing room, how are you girls feeling?
We went into the game pretty defensive, like out of possession and I don’t think that served any of us very well to be honest. I mean a lot of us I think one thing about our team is like the energy of our team and the performances of individuals they all it has a domino effect on everybody else. Like even when people ask me about my individual performances, I do always say like it’s a reflection of the players I’m around. When you’re around good players they make you play better. We went into the Morocco game, we were pretty defensive straight away and we were all normally playing good at pressing and suffocating teams. And when we were dropping off we were all kind of on different pages so it had a knock-on effect on everyone. For me in the first half, It was a struggle because I was trying to figure out like do I get tight do I drop off and then sometimes when you’re in that situation and you’re half and half you’re not really doing anything very effectively. So, we went in at halftime and we all knew that we were making mistakes we don’t normally do and we couldn’t really get any fluidity and possession either. We went in the halftime and there’s a lot of emotion. Some people were just sitting there. I was just sitting there asking myself what I need to in the second half. Some of the sub players were having conversations with people and then when we went out in the second half, we had to remind ourselves that we are so good when we press teams and we make it hard for them we play in their half and I think straight away. To be honest Morocco were pretty tired when like even at the start of the second half. So, we were higher up the pitch we were winning the ball back higher at the pitch. I think at some point in second half as well we changed into having just like one holding midfielder instead of two. So, we had another player higher up to be able to win the ball back. My game completely change in the second half where I was just reminding myself like as you’re better. When you’re tight to players you’re not allowing them to turn you’re not allowing them to run at you and I was just thinking that why am I not doing that even if the coach has a certain game plan it doesn’t mean it has to change what I’m good at. So, in the second half I decided I’m just not going to allow her to be able to run at me. And again everybody had a knock on effect on each other winning the ball higher up, being able to play. They couldn’t then play out and then we decided to get momentum. We were winning the ball back. We were playing more in the final third and then the penalty came Honestly I don’t know how the other girls felt but as soon as we got that penalty I was happy we’ve got what need to come back on into the game. The tides definitely changed pretty quickly but this wasn’t until I think about 60 minutes that we got the goal. Then we made some subs like when we’re in Oshoala and Echegini came on, I think they made a huge difference and we just managed to get the goals back.
Was there any specific change of tactics from the coach?
He did say to us like I need you all to get tighter and I think from an individual perspective we can, but I think when we collectively as a group decided that we all wanted to be higher up. Like we did a little huddle before the start of the second half and we all said to each other just as players. We said to ourselves, this is not our standard and let’s make it hard for them by being higher up. We got some things from the sideline but I think collectively as players it was our decision to up our game. And I think even the goals that we conceded there were really poor goals. They were our mistakes rather than them being able to play through us, we just knew that we had to just get on top of those little and think about it as well like this is the final. We’ve been away for five weeks and I don’t know about some of the other girls but I was tired. it’s not just a physical game, it’s emotionally draining. So, you had to get yourself to a point where you know like half time I just could allow myself breathe, focus on. I speak to myself out loud. So, when I walked back onto the pitch to the second half, I speak to myself, I was like Ashly, you know what you’re good at. Be yourself, ignore the noise and then as soon as I think within the first couple minutes I like won a header or something and that for me was just like the turning point for me.
What was the feeling for you after the comeback the final we saw Nigeria champions what was the emotions running through you especially when it went to 2-2
I just I just had a very good feeling. I knew that we had the momentum at this point and I could physically see how exhausted these Moroccan players were. I mean they made a couple of subs so I was thinking like oh maybe that will bring a bit of freshness. But we just managed to step up. The one thing about our team is even when we’re tired somehow we managed to just push through and I don’t know where it comes from. Even for myself, I’ve never had an experience that when I play with these girls, it’s something that I’ve not even experienced when I play at club. There’s something about the tenacity and raw passion of the girls that just makes you find something, even when you’re really tired, you can just find something in you to be able to keep going. I just put that down to the the amazing energy of some of the players.
-Jamiu Abubakar
