{"id":15543,"date":"2026-11-12T01:15:44","date_gmt":"2026-11-12T01:15:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/12\/u-17-wwc-golden-ball-winner-driven-by-mothers-struggles\/"},"modified":"2026-11-12T01:15:44","modified_gmt":"2026-11-12T01:15:44","slug":"u-17-wwc-golden-ball-winner-driven-by-mothers-struggles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/12\/u-17-wwc-golden-ball-winner-driven-by-mothers-struggles\/","title":{"rendered":"U-17 WWC Golden Ball winner driven by mother\u2019s struggles"},"content":{"rendered":"

Golden<\/strong> Ball winner at the 2026 FIFA U-17 Women\u2019s World Cup, Oluebube Umejiaku, has said her drive to succeed in football comes from her desire to end her mother\u2019s suffering and give her a better life.\n<\/p>\n

The Flamingos forward spoke to BBC News Pidgin about growing up in a family with little financial means and said she would never give up on her career.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not easy coming out from a family that has nothing. It was a very big challenge for me to make it in life. No matter how, in this football career, I won\u2019t give up. I cannot give up,\u201d Umejiaku said.\n<\/p>\n

She said her mother\u2019s hardship remained her biggest motivation, particularly the way people treat her.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t give up because of my mother; she has suffered a lot. I need to take her out of where she is. People insult her, talk to her anyhow. Even when I\u2019m there, they talk to her anyhow,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The forward added that she prays for recognition so that people will stop looking down on her mother.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI always talk to God to make people know my name, so they won\u2019t insult my mother anyhow. She tells me not to reply them, to allow them insult her, so they won\u2019t put me in any problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cI give God all the glory, and I thank God for life. I pray God gives me the strength, the mind, the ability to go forward in life,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

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Related News<\/header>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

She also credited her mother for encouraging her throughout the tournament in Morocco, where the Flamingos became the first African nation to win the competition.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I started playing football at seven years old, I didn\u2019t see myself winning the World Cup Golden Ball. When we won the tournament, my mother didn\u2019t let me rest. Even during the tournament, she always called me to motivate me to score. Whenever she says that I\u2019ll score, I\u2019ll score. So I\u2019m very happy,\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n

Umejiaku scored or provided an assist in every match she featured in. She did not start the opening 2-1 defeat to Poland but came off the bench to score Nigeria\u2019s first goal of the tournament. She then set up a goal in the 2-0 win over Puerto Rico and scored against defending champions Korea DPR in a 3-1 victory.\n<\/p>\n

In the knockout rounds, she scored against Mexico and won the late penalty that Azeezat Oduntan converted to secure a 1-0 win over Venezuela in the quarter-finals. She assisted Nigeria\u2019s third goal in the 3-1 semi-final win over Brazil, then scored the second goal in the 2-1 victory over Japan in the final. t six months at the club following his January move from Italian side Atalanta.\n<\/p>\n

The number 11 shirt was previously worn by Argentine midfielder Thiago Almada, who completed a switch to River Plate this summer. Lookman is no stranger to the number, having also worn it during his time in Bergamo.\n<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old enjoyed an impressive half-season at Atletico after his arrival, scoring nine goals and providing four assists in 24 appearances across all competitions for the LaLiga side.<\/p>\n

Source: <\/p>\n

Punch Newspapers – Latest News<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Golden Ball winner at the 2026 FIFA U-17 Women\u2019s World Cup, Oluebube Umejiaku, has said her drive to succeed in football comes from her desire to end her mother\u2019s suffering… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15543\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}