June 23, 2022 • 44 mins
When the scout knocked on the door of Josephine Chukwunonye’s one-room home in Lagos, Nigeria, her father told him to leave. But Josephine (aka Alinco) pleaded – “Dad, if you don’t let me play, I will die” – until her father gave in. When she told her mother that one day she would use her soccer earnings to build her family a house, her mother laughed: “Child, that doesn’t happen for girls.” But Alinco kept dreaming anyway: at night, sleeping on the floor with her six family members beside her, she thought to herself, “One day I will change our lives.” This is the story of Alinco – and a Nigerian professional league that allows women to change the fates of their families.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
From a one room home in Lagos, Nigeria, to an
underground league in Queens, New York. We take you all
over the world on a journey that is immersive, intimate,
and intense. These are the lives of dreamers, of women's
soccer players who ask themselves, what am I willing to risk?
How far will I go to chase this game? These
(00:23):
are the stories of mothers and daughters, of far flung
adventures of heartbreak, endurance and joy. This series is about
finding something you love and doing whatever it takes to
keep it no matter what. I'm Hannah Waddingham and this
is Hustle Rule, based on the book Under the Lights
and in the Dark, written by Gwendolen Oxenham. When I
(00:46):
first spoke to Gwen about this series, I was astonished
that the stories you are about to hear haven't been
more widely told. I think every kid in every school
should grow up hearing them. And while this series focuses
on football, the themes are universal for all the women
you're going to hear from. There's that teetering moment of
(01:06):
do I just accept that this is where I'm going
to sit, or do I do that last push? Because
I know I deserve it. It's not lost on me
that my role in ted Lesso is as the female
owner of an all male football team. In my own life,
I've tried to widen the field of opportunities for my
seven and a half year old daughter. While girls weren't
(01:29):
playing football in schools when I grew up, now that
has changed. Every Monday I take my daughter to football
club and she's like, Mommy, I love it. And as
she listens to this series, just as you are now,
I hope she is as inspired as I am. Here's
(01:50):
Gwen our author, a former player herself. At sixteen, she
was the youngest Division one soccer player in US collegiate history.
After playing at Duke University and then professionally in Santos, Brazil,
she made Pilada, a documentary about pickup games around the world.
(02:11):
She's been using soccer as a way into stories ever since.
Back in July of two thousand and four, I stood
with my teammate on the side of a dirt road
in e t i Aim, Brazil, holding out my thumb
attempting to hitchhike. It's a professional foot juball practice. We
played for Santos the most storied club in Brazil, and
(02:33):
this was our daily routine. My teammate would bat at
my thumb and mumble at me in Portuguese, never satisfied
with my technique, We take off after the car, yelling Brigada,
having saved ourselves the forty five minute walked to the field.
As I sat in the backseat, I thought to myself,
if this is what professional women's football looks like in Brazil,
(02:56):
the holy land of the game, what does it look
like in the rest of the world. That question led
me to write my book, and now you can hear
the players stories told in their own voices. Our first
episode is a linko the super Falcon. There are few
places in the world as busy as the a regular
boundary market in Lagos, Nigeria. Legos is the largest city
(03:21):
in all of Africa. It has a population of nearly
fifteen million people, and here it feels like it. The
market is chalk full of stalls and stands, chicken coops
and overflowing baskets of fruits and vegetables and lots of people.
So many people hustling and moving and shouting and selling,
(03:41):
balancing goods on their heads as they navigate the maze
of the market. This is where thirteen year old Josephine
Trigue has been selling fruit every afternoon for the past
four years, carrying a tray of mangoes and bananas on
her head. But today is different. Today it feels like
she has a secret because yesterday her life changed. A
(04:06):
scout knocked on thep ply with door of her family's
one room home and told her parents she had what
it took to be a professional football player. Man that
I think that the I sawed almost everything, because you
know there's this energy that gone, you know when you
are having when you are doing something and you know
something is going to come up from this. My life
(04:27):
is going to change after this. Now she needed cleats.
Her mother, the owner of a roadside fruit stand, had
told her she could keep ten cents out of every dollar.
This meant that every mango she sold got her one
step closer to cleats, to football, to her future. Several
boys had ridden the golden football ticket out of a
(04:47):
regular They found professional careers in Nigeria, in Tunisia, as
far away as Sweden. Josephine wanted to do the same thing.
I keep telling my mom when I was selling in
the market. One day, you're gonna see me in the TV.
But as everyone told her, you're a girl. That doesn't
(05:11):
happen to girls. This is the story of Josephine's relentless
pursuit of her dreams and her determination to prove everyone wrong.
(05:31):
Money one days, nobody here's Gwen. When Josephine was born,
the third daughter in the family, her father disappeared for
three days. I know he's actually waiting for you, a
male child, because of his family. When they gave it
(05:53):
to me, wasn't at the hospital. He wasn't present when
he came. He left. It was like if he made again,
So it was that's happy about it. He didn't even
show up. He was disappointed to have a daughter, while
she was disappointed to be born in the poverty. All
the time, I always asked my dad why we're white.
We're staying in around them apartment with everyone inside the one.
(06:18):
We have five on the floor and my mom and
my dad on the bed. So we have to create
a space whenever I want to sleep in the night,
so we have to like take the long sulfa and
put on top of the shot sofa, so we have
like a space and that space. We have to put
a math on the floor and we sleep. My leg
is gonna be on my sister's head, so my oldest
(06:39):
sister leg is going to be on my head. During
the days, Josephine and her sister fell in love with football,
playing in the dirt with the boys. Their father did
not approve. It was like, you cannot believe because it's
for men, You're gonna be like a man. I don't
want my check to be like your man. But Nko
(07:00):
barely heard these talks from her father, and one day
he actually watched her. It was a game between they're
part of the neighborhood and another part of the neighborhood.
Three kids against three other kids, and everybody for some
reason was watching, and there was this raucous, excited feeling
in the air that did the rain is falling. I
took the boat from the back and dremble almost everybody
(07:23):
in I scool Scott against the guys, and we do
was maybe she's good. Maybe she's good. So he was happy.
He was just surprised to see that what people are
seeing is true. She's good. But even that day had
not changed his mind. When a local coach named Tico
knocked on their door and invited Josephine and her sister
(07:46):
to play for his team. Her father wasn't having it.
The first day to cooking to our house, it was
that I want to see your dad, and my dad
is really my dad is a tough man. My dad said,
you don't need to come to this house anymore to
take my child to football because she's a woman. I
don't want that to look like a man. Partico is
(08:07):
actually so scared of my father because my dad definitely
means it. When they said I don't want to see
your mouse, you don't need to come. He's gonna call
the police on So Tico left and went to talk
to my mom. I started crying and say if if
I if I will not be able to play football,
then I'm gonna die. I keep saying it to my
(08:30):
mom because I know my mom has a soft spot.
You say, a mommy, so you see this ball. See
if I don't play this boll? Say, I will die?
So are you? We die if it's not play that, mommy.
If I don't play football, I will die. You can't
hear your daughter say that and not given this coach
(08:51):
Tico was saying their daughter could be great, that football
could give her a future and a jay. Futures weren't
easy to buy. Her father knew this firsthand. Every day
he left her home to look for work as a
day laborer. One time Josephine followed him and saw him
at the wharf, just waiting. I saw him in a
(09:14):
really bad state. You know, when you don't have a job,
you need to sit. It was just like chicken, he said.
I think he's waiting for someone to choose him. That
day's face is not good. And every time my dad
went to work, he would say he's working, but he's
not working. I didn't tear anybody though. I just know
(09:38):
that my dad is not working. So all this way
we're asking him of money that he gives us money,
he's just squeezing, squeezing from his own side. It doesn't
have a good job at all. So since then, I
don't think I ever asked him about And while we pull,
I don't ever asking. Even though Josephine's father hadn't wanted
(10:06):
a third daughter and had fought her every time she
tried to play football, they were also somehow best friends.
It was obvious to Josephine's sister, Christianna. She's always my
father's favor. Like the two of them, they love each
other very well. Her father was also one of those
guys who was good at giving people nicknames, like he
(10:26):
big Dan name and just give it to you. Dan
name is the name is going to be called like
me called Micbaco. Baco is like a plywood. So when
my dad is telling me that Micbaco, he means that
slim and strong. I was that what did you call me? This?
What you always called me? This name? Her skinniness earned
(10:51):
her another nickname, one that her family still uses to
this day. It came during one particularly windy training with
Coach t O at the military field, when turning her
oversized jersey into a sale. My shot was really big
and we wanted to start training, so we need to
(11:12):
like take a around around the beach. He started and
drizzling like a lot of wind. Daddy. I noticed that
I'm running, but the wind is taking me backwards at
some boy shouts, see how you're running like a linko.
A Linko is the name of a character on the
popular Nigerian sitcom Papa Jasco. He's a famously skinny boy
(11:37):
with a signature walk, and we have a little kids
that are training the other side. So all the kids
started shouting Lincoln. So that was how the name came up.
The name just came like that. The day I went home,
my sister was like, Daddy, your daughter's new name is
a Lincoln. My dad was laughing the old nighble. Everybody
(11:59):
know I am Lincoln. It wasn't long before another coach
knocked on her door, a scout from one of the
best professional women's teams in Nigeria, the Pelican Stars. They
came from far away, from a city called Calabar in
the southernmost tip of the country. It was more than
a fourteen hour drive and the bus was leaving the
(12:21):
next day. So when this guy came, when he first
came to the door, and you know, my dad said,
so you want to take my daughter to that's far
please Calaba for how many years? So the man was like, no,
your daughter is good, We will will take her to Calaba.
Will be giving us some money, will be paying your salary.
(12:44):
So my dad was like, no, she's too young. How
would she be able to take care of herself? At first,
my dad stand up, He wasn't taking it because I've
never traveled that far with people that I don't know.
You say, if you don't go away from my house,
maybe I'm gonna come place when you. It was insulting
in every manner my mom King, and my mom was
(13:08):
just like trying to persuade in. People are watching, Daddy
because they noticed that in some footballer coach King. So
the compound was a little bit, a little bit fool Daddy,
like everybody are looking. But the old place was quiet.
It was my dad voice and a King's voice and
my mom's voice and my cry. I was saying, if
(13:28):
I don't play football, Daddy, if I don't play football,
I'm going to die you. So that is when my
mom started talking to my dad saying, let's give it
to try. And the next morning, A Lincoln took a
bus with half a dozen other girls to a new
life in a new state, playing professional football on grass
for the first time. I started football on a bison.
(13:52):
When I come to the grass, it was like football
was too sweet for me. When I'm playing it, I'm
just flowing um like I'm like maybe on the sky.
Playing on the grass. This is sweet and it's easy
you can pass the boys a little without people bumping,
because the grass was really smooth and I was running.
(14:12):
I wasn't even tired. And after spending her whole life
sleeping in one room with six other people, she was
giving a room to share with only one other player.
I said, I used stevious this room. You know, I
was really happy. I was like, so I first called
(14:35):
my mom. Mom, can you believed that me and somebody's
gonna share one room? One room and we have toilets,
we have bedroom, were kitchen inside, And in this moment,
she knew she would find a way to get her
family out of a jugular. You know, when you don't
have something and you you actually experienced a little bit
(14:58):
of it, you will be dreaming about it, like I'm
gonna walk out to get this. My first month in
that place in Pelicans that were just saying, O God,
I know I'm going to have a place. We're gonna
be comfortable like this. That is, I keep saying it.
I don't even know how I'm gonna do it, but
I know I'm gonna do it. But my mom, they
(15:19):
don't take teams serious because of course she's also if
I say something when I wake up that I have
a cow in my dream. Then I have a house.
They will say, Okay, it's malaria, it's tie. They don't
even believe it. They say it's malaria, you have a fever.
(15:40):
But I keep saying it all the time that I'm
going to buy a house. I'm gonna buy a house.
I'm gonna be the house for you. I called A
Linco's mom and A Lincoln's sister, Christiana and Legos. I asked,
when she told you she would build you a house,
did you believe her? Well that done? When she said,
(16:02):
Mom brought me she will built house, should we back
up from me? I didn't think said will be really yeah,
my mom would be saying that she's seeking the head.
She just did dreaming that. My mom then she just
encouraged us to play football, but she never really believed
that the outcome. We did this huge. In two and eight,
(16:28):
for the first time, FIFA, soccer's global ruling body, was
hosting an under seventeen Women's World Cup. Nigeria was creating
a team, and A Lincoln was one of more than
fifty girls invited to try out. I was pretting every day,
see move me a big like movie. Please pray for
me my moment, just say one of the two players.
(16:52):
She don't know what it means, you know me. I
was just saying, good please, my hartwork, this is not
my heartwork is gonna shoot to day they called the finalist.
I called my family and I told them about it
because the names are going to come out from in
the newspapers. My mom heard about it in the market. See,
(17:14):
your daughter name is in the newspaper. The daughter qualified
to them one of the players going to Guinea konakre
she's on the second tea player now. So that is
when the first time they heard about my name in
the newspaper. My mom was like, so, my pikame name
can I entered this paper. Pickin means my child, my
child name can be in the newspaper. Our first game
(17:38):
is Guinea Kona Krei and we need to travel by
a So that was my first plane. I was just
thinking that God, please, I just don't want to die
this young. I was shouting. I was crying holding the
plane seats. So when the plane started having a little
bit of the turbulence on the air, it was mad.
(18:00):
I couldn't even continue. Man, that experience was. It was awesome,
but it wasn't It wasn't easy. Number one thing I
was thinking now, I'm I'm beginning to leave the dream
that on the seventh team makes me to realize that
this boy is going places. In May, she traveled to
(18:23):
New Zealand for the main event, the Under seventeen World Cap,
and the games were going to be televised that day.
The energy went off. So the the other neighbor, yeah,
is he has a generator, so they own the generator.
So they were like, come and see your child. Your
child is playing, Come and see your child. This is
(18:44):
an honor for everyone who first in the neighborhood. So
they invite my dad inside their house and that was
the first time that man can actually call my dad
inside his own hours to come and watch the TV.
So I was playing and you know, the only boos
that is shouting. They have never watched anybody in the TV,
(19:07):
like you know, somebody you know, like somebody from your
neighborhood in the TV. It has never help put in
in my place. Christiana was there that day. Everybody was
shouting Alco a Linko, a Linco, now you had your score,
one go. Everybody watched outing Alco is not link that score?
Why everybody was shouting that Linco because she was She
(19:29):
really played well in that match. He really played weight.
So after the game, after everything, I called them and
I can't hear the voice and the back anybody shouting
every shout to me. Do you play where you did well?
My dad was proud of you. You know this I've
never had My dad has never come to Navy Barretts
(19:50):
to watch me play football since since I've been playing
football all my life. The Navy Barracks was the dirt
field close to a jacula. It was a safe place
to play and many Nigerian grades had beginnings on that field.
But her dad didn't watch her until this national team
game on television. I think that was that was everything
(20:12):
to my father. My dad was extremely happy after that.
Given a calling was actually you are looking so big
in the TV. What's indivial life? You are so small.
So after that day, my dad was so amazed. I
would like that was the best experience about if your
parents are watching you play and they have never watched
(20:35):
you before. It was the first time, so it was
really good for me. And the day she came back,
the entire neighborhood was waiting for her something. Her sister
and her mom. Still remember if you see the starting people,
we are shouting. When I came back. That is when
I put the money down. I said that you c
(20:58):
the football. Now you say she didn't play. This is
the book. This is the dollar. I've never seen dollar.
That was the first time my mom was seeing dollar
for the first time. My dad too, So my mom are,
I was like, so give this dollar. Never seen the life.
(21:22):
Not long after that, A Lincoln gets scooped up by
the best team in the country, the River Angels. The
roster boasted nearly all national team players, and in May
two thousand and ten, at just eighteen years old, A
Lincoln joined the Nigerian senior national team to play in
a friendly against North Korea. The way their woman up,
(21:43):
he scares me. They are women of like like militree men.
That country is different from everywhere being to our own life.
To you, everybody is wearing the same clothes. The funds
that came to watch, they're all wearing like dark loud
T shirt. Everything was just seeing in the stadium the noise.
(22:04):
So that day I was super skid, but I actually
did my best as a young player. I really, I
really played at the boats. Mende's girls are good. A
Lincoln usually talked with her family a lot every day,
(22:25):
but since she'd been in North Korea, her phone had
been quiet. Yeah, my dad, we are clues. If I
call him, he's not picking up. I called my mom,
called my Sister's got the two of them putting on
picking up. See me. They have a problem with their phone.
No one answered for five days. Finally her sister picked up.
(22:46):
She was so sorry, our phone has been so bad
because we don't have energy, and so okay, I understand,
but why everybody say they are fine? But A Lincoln
knew that things were not fine. So when the t
he made it back to Nigeria, she caught the next
pass back home that day. I just took the night
(23:06):
Boss and go to Legos. They takes a maybe like
eight or nine hours. It's a road trip. Inside the Boss,
I was just like I couldn't sleep. You know, it's
a blood thin I just feel something that's wrong with me.
(23:26):
I was just bringing that we should reach Ellie, like
the boss should move really fast, let me know what
is happening, Like I hope it's not something serious. The
moment I went home, I saw a lot of people
crying all the way to our house. I said, I
don't know why. Why is everybody? Then I know that
(23:47):
my dad's dead. I couldn't stand it. I have to
run away. I couldn't even sleep in the house. I
just run away and went to another place and sleep
past a night in the or. I was angry because
I wasn't there for him. That is what I just feel.
I wish I'm in Nigeria, if we're not in Korea.
(24:10):
I think I could have maybe metal when it was
in the hospital battling for his life, everybody was there
with him. It is just me. I wish they told me.
I told him. At least I could have even called
on video just to hear him, even if he's not talking.
Only is brittain for me to just yet something about him. Lastly,
(24:33):
he could have been good. I didn't even see him.
He wouldn't. I didn't even touch him. Nothing. If you
told me that my dad's gonna die house and never
I never believed that is dead because he's full of life.
That man is so strong man. I've never felt that
(24:55):
way before. It's like something left me that day and
I saw it, the dead body. I never believed that
a big man like that can just die and it
cannot talk. It was just silent. You couldn't say anything.
We are opening. It could just open his mouth to
see something. It's painful. In her father, she had lost
(25:19):
her best friend and the patriarch of her family. A
Linco and her family are part of the Ebo ethnic group,
and the loss of the patriarch without a direct male heir,
is a big deal. It depends on individual families, and
it depends on the man status. But generally there is
this belief that if a man does not have a
(25:40):
son and dies, that that such a man had lived
a worthless life and that there will be nobody to
continue his lineage, and after his brothers contemporaries die, the
man will be forgotten. That Professor Gloria Chuco she's the
(26:02):
chair of Africana Studies at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County,
and she specializes in gender dynamics and Ebo culture. No
one in a Linco's father's Ebo village helps the family
of women with a burial. They are left to fend
for themselves. At twenty years old a Linko pays for
her father's funeral almost entirely by herself. I think that
(26:25):
Buryer make me like I need just so you need
to step up. I was just like I need to
have a house. I saw a lot of players building
houses in reverse angels. I'm our manager, then she's actually
the manager of She always encouraged young players use your
money wisely. What you do for your family is what
(26:48):
is what they're going to remember you off. So she
encouraged every one who for us to get the land.
She always remind us in every day, every night, remember
to see I remember to see, remember your amnipaku. So
I just go to the land inside a place in
it could inside legals about a place for five never
(27:11):
is in dulas is. I think. So every money I
made in national team, I didn't even spend it. I
was saving every penny. It took five years to build
the house. Every year the home went up little by little,
room by room, and by two thousand and fifteen, her
(27:32):
mom and sisters had a place they could call their own.
And this isn't just a Linko story. Many Nigerian women's
players have also been able to save money and change
their families lives. The Nigerian Women's Football League is one
of the longest standing women's professional leagues in the world,
(27:52):
first starting in Here's the Minadwa the current head of
women's football at the Nigerian Football Federation. And these girls,
most of them come from poor backgrounds. They grew up struggling.
They saw their parents struggling. So by getting into football
and making it with the little they have, a lot
of them are the breadwinners. They do basically all everything
(28:14):
for their family. It gives you know, it gives them
a leeway to see the world, make it in life
and then help their family members and other people too.
So it does help. It changes their life. It does
change their life because of the country's investment in the
women's game. The Super Falcons have a history of being
(28:35):
the best team in Africa. To be fair, and the
Super Falcons are the champions of Africa. We won nine
African Cup of Nations. We have about eleven tattoos to
our name, but we're the best in Africa anyway, the
Super Falcon so you know, we we not want to
try and connectrate the world. But they also have something
(28:57):
of a World Cup curse. They're only advanced to the
quarterfinals once in World Cup history. In and for the
last two decades, they've been pitted against stiff competition in
the group stage where teams fight to qualify. It happens
in two thousand and three points to the middle the
(29:19):
United States of America five and in two thousand and
seven closing out their World Cup but to lose by
this score against the United States, that's really like a
moral victory for them and two thousand eleven jo It's
a story that Nigerian sports journalist at Anca Oya del
(29:42):
A has seen over and over again. We all know
when it comes to women's soccer, women's football in the world,
the Americans are top notch, the Germans a top notch,
the Swedes a top notch, and we find ourselves always
drawing one of these three teams in a group. We
always hope to avoid the Americans, the Germans and the Suites.
(30:05):
Bring on any other team, we feel we have what
it takes to match them, but then somehow we just
get to draw these guys we called our group of
death when you give us a very strong team, and
that has been the major problem for Nigeria. In two
thousand and fifteen, they once again landed in the Group
of Death, but Alinko and her teammates were all hope.
(30:25):
Just one year earlier, a good portion of the roster
had wowed the soccer world at the Under twenty World Cup,
and while they ultimately lost to Germany in the final,
they had dominated the game. Most watching the tournament would
have described the Nigerians as the most talented youth team
in the world. One year later, the senior side was
(30:46):
composed of many of the same players, twenty year olds
eager to stun the favorites in their group Sweden, Australia
and the United States. The American game, it was like
the highness. I wouldn't lie to you. It was like
the finest because we put the game on i S
(31:06):
level force, like we're going to beat these girls. That
day we came to win. We are so close to
win if not for and the one bag that's called man.
That game was really one of my best game I played.
Eschimely good. A Linko is a center back. She strips
(31:30):
the ball off of incoming forwards in a way that
is absolute and intimidating. Then she distributes coolly and definitively
Courtney d K was one of the younger teammates playing
with a Lingo in that World Cup. I was very
intimidated by her because she's ruthless, and so I was
going up against her in practice and she was just
(31:53):
dominating everything. She would go down to tackle you as
hard as she could. If you're going going up again, stir.
But then you know she'll talk to you after the
game and it will be like nothing happened. Even though
the Nigerians don't make it out of group, a Linko
didn't go unnoticed. Her agent got her a contract to
finish out the American professional season with the Washington Spirit.
(32:16):
A Linka would leave the River Angels and for the
first time, play professional soccer on another continent. But before
she took off for the US, there was something she
wanted to do for her mom. So when I came back,
I bought my mom sell funitures. The funitures because she
has never eaten in the only dining table before. So
(32:37):
I took out to the funiture show and I was like, mo, me,
I've seen a lot. I've seen some nice stuff in
my life, and I would like you to experience little water.
I asked a Linko's mom what she remembered from that day.
Her sister Christiana helped explain, Mama by what I was
(33:00):
a Lincoln. You can't have follow these things now this desire.
Nicole was laughing at us. They moved me calm down,
um here to buy all these things for you. So
my mother, my mother shouted and say, wow, you want
to buy the all these things for me, so that
they are Linko box, blend, our new couch, television, said
so many other things. So nigive they do our distance
(33:23):
for me for my life upon this basket, this sofa
sign no believe for my life. That day I cry,
I cried. I thank God, she says. She knelt down
and she was crying because so many people have been
(33:45):
mocking at right from where she was giving birth to
all of us, that she doesn't have the male child,
that female you and now of no use, that nobody
will take care of her in our old age. So
what male children can do our female you not doing
it for her. So she was happy and she was
crying at the same time INDs and for mutual house.
(34:06):
So she said she was really good to to go.
She was thanking God that what other male childn't can
do that our own daughter. He's doing it for Between
joining the team mid season and visa technicalities, A Lincoln
only played in two games for the Washington Spirit, but
she loved those two games and she was hopeful for
(34:29):
the next season until the team delivered some news. They
just told us that our coach is going to leave.
But when the new coach is coming, the new coach
did not even see us play, did just wavers. It's
quite crazy. So we are thinking they're gonna weave us
to another team boats they just wave us out. After
(34:52):
only three months, A Lincos dream of playing in the
US is over. Instead, she signs a one year contract
with Swedish club Victory, with the option to extend. Nagosi
Sonya A Kobe, her teammate from the Washington Spirit, does
the same every game. I am winning like me and Sonia.
(35:14):
If she didn't get m VP, I'm getting If she
didn't get it, I'm getting it. So we are just
like the eye of the team. If Sonya's called me,
I danced, Sonia would want to meet me. We started
dancing and Lincoln played every minute of every match until
she couldn't. The last two games from the first round.
(35:37):
That is when I started developing pains. Maybe I was
looking the pain will go, the pain will go. I
started I've seen it and going to my fisio. But
I was like playing with it. Well when the pain
was increasing, my leg was swollen and I'm still using it.
We did emirate the result was bad. The he said
(36:00):
what was like, they need to do a surgery. So
I was like, I don't know if I would be
able to do surgeries. This is the need are bad.
So I'm just scared of bad result because I might
the peak of my career. I'm not even enjoyed the
professional life yet. After the surgery to Kim and said
(36:20):
the case on the knees not good, I was on
my bed with Sonia. I was crying. That is when
the coaches came to me and said that they won't
give me another contract. That is where I started having
the problem of my life. I think she had a
(36:40):
great sense of how to play the game. I recall
it the ability to read the play and so she
had some difficulties with a knee, but before that she
was flying. It was one of the best mid defenders
in the league. So that's Thomas Mortenson, one of our
(37:01):
linco's coaches. A bit we had a medical opinion on
what I mean. It's hard also because football is both
taking care of people, but it's also a business, so
it's hard to keep players. When our doctors said that
she wouldn't be able to play and if we couldn't
give her a contract from next yep, that was really sad,
but that's football sometimes. Also, if one thing is clear,
(37:32):
a Linko is resilient. At thirty years old, she has
accomplished more than anyone ever expected, so it's no surprise
that when she got this devastating news, she still picked
herself back up and found a way. Here's Stefan extr And,
who coached a inco in Sweden when she was trying
to make it back to the first division. She had
(37:52):
this fantastic fighting spirit. When she came to a game,
she did every in for the team to concede a
clean sheet or scoring a goal. I remember she took
the players together and then she were talking about that
(38:15):
she would do anything and everything to help the club
and the players. And when the Africa Cup of Nations
comes around, a Linko is back on the national team
where she plays for her country and ultimately helps Nigeria
win the whole tournament at Nigeria are the nine Government.
(38:41):
I think that was my most happiest moment because that
was the competition of My mom personally watched me. She
watched me. Every game that came back from injury were
by the c I can not play foot point. I
was really happy. I was really happy because I work.
(39:01):
Every Body is watching, so we will come to my house.
They will be making nice O lincle. Everybody wants shouted,
I saw your sister, I saw yourself. Bad are legal
is modera? O liver is every everyone who everybody wants
to be like a legal. But after the high of that,
wind E Linco was soon faced with the facts the
(39:24):
injury on her knee is too significant to continue with
a professional soccer career. Man When the doctor said you
can't if you keep playing, you're going to have complication
on your knee, I would like to do. It's not easy.
Thank you, like to you. I'm just feel like I lost.
That is how I'm just saying. I said that I'm
(39:46):
a loser. I I'm too good, I'm too good to
store football. I'm just having this old thing because I
know I'm at the top of my game. Injury is
no good, especially when you come from me. You know
you're the one doing everything for them. This thing up
unto you. You can't even go back home and they
take care of you. No job in Ena. I don't
(40:08):
blame them, though, I blame my society. My sisters. They
went to school, their guarduate, but they don't have jobs.
They are only selling their petty trade. I've never done
anything apart from football. This is my life. You know,
we would like go for me. There's no job in
that the Injuria, so many people went to school. I
did not even go to university. I don't have that
(40:32):
big connection and enjoyed that. They can't even help me
to get a good job. You know, when you lost
something that is something that is your life. It's an explainable.
The feeling I have about me getting the press is
one thing. I would never know how to express this
because football was just my everything. Football scholar Lauren Dubois
(40:58):
once wrote, soccer at its heart is all about creating
openings where there seem to be none. Every player on
the pitch lives by this rule. This truth, of course,
extends beyond the field. If you can find the opening,
you can change your life. A Linko's talent is the
reason she was able to build a home for her family,
and now as she recovers from injury, she's running into
(41:21):
new barriers, navigating spaces she's never been in before. Then
miss every day, every day, every day, I miss it,
and if I talk about it, I won't sleep. I'll
be thinking during me about Footbay every day. So that
is why I don't keep in torch with them at
the football My football team meets in Africa because they
(41:44):
want to know what's up with me. Good and even
you know, I'll come to this point in my life boots,
I tried. I'm still fighting for it too. I need
to fight for life. One thing that makes me actually
really like I came out from that depression was like
a lot of people don't eat in Nangeria right now
(42:08):
because the state of Nangera is bad since last year.
I know when people am sending money to even when
I don't have money, I said them even just maybe
daty dollars, they will be grateful. So at least I'm
even seeing more than daty dollars now, So who am
I to be complaining. I know, no matter how I'm struggling,
(42:28):
I've always had this strong mentality about it. In Nigeria,
football gives women the opportunity to make a living, to
support their families, to be a breadwinner. Josephine Chiku is
living proof of this, and though she's been forced to
move on from the game, that same determination, resilience and
(42:52):
drive that took her to the largest stage in football
will lead her right to her next opening. So over
the next six weeks will be sharing more or inspiring
stories of incredible women who will do anything to play
the game they love. I'm Hannah Waddingham and this is
Hustle Rule. To celebrate the series launch of Hustle Rule,
(43:15):
We've got a two episode special drop. Listen now to
our next episode play away, the Game for Nobody. Hustle
(43:40):
Rule is a production of Waffle Iron Entertainment, Range Media Partners,
Observatory Audio, UP Media and I Heart Radio, written and
directed by Gwendolyn oxen Um, hosted by me Hannah wadding Um,
and is based on the book Under the Lights and
in the Dark, written by Gwendolyn Oxenham. The executive producers
are justin Biscun from Waffle Iron Entertainment, Bob Alligan from
(44:01):
Range Media Partners, and Sean Titan from iHeart Radio. Co
written by Ruth Hilton, produced by Gwendolyn Oxenham, Ruth Hilton
and Jordana Glick Franszheim, co produced by Jimmy Jelinek and
Jared Goodstadt, edited by Carry Caulfield, Eric sound design and
mixing by Jeremiah's Immerman. Music by Jeff Peters and Bill
mart Theme song performed by a one Laflair. You'll find
(44:24):
more podcasts from iHeart Radio on the iHeart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Coot Club
From a one room home in Lagos, Nigeria, to an
underground league in Queens, New York. We take you all
over the world on a journey that is immersive, intimate,
and intense. These are the lives of dreamers, of women's
soccer players who ask themselves, what am I willing to risk?
How far will I go to chase this game? These
(00:23):
are the stories of mothers and daughters, of far flung
adventures of heartbreak, endurance and joy. This series is about
finding something you love and doing whatever it takes to
keep it no matter what. I'm Hannah Waddingham and this
is Hustle Rule, based on the book Under the Lights
and in the Dark, written by Gwendolen Oxenham. When I
(00:46):
first spoke to Gwen about this series, I was astonished
that the stories you are about to hear haven't been
more widely told. I think every kid in every school
should grow up hearing them. And while this series focuses
on football, the themes are universal for all the women
you're going to hear from. There's that teetering moment of
(01:06):
do I just accept that this is where I'm going
to sit, or do I do that last push? Because
I know I deserve it. It's not lost on me
that my role in ted Lesso is as the female
owner of an all male football team. In my own life,
I've tried to widen the field of opportunities for my
seven and a half year old daughter. While girls weren't
(01:29):
playing football in schools when I grew up, now that
has changed. Every Monday I take my daughter to football
club and she's like, Mommy, I love it. And as
she listens to this series, just as you are now,
I hope she is as inspired as I am. Here's
(01:50):
Gwen our author, a former player herself. At sixteen, she
was the youngest Division one soccer player in US collegiate history.
After playing at Duke University and then professionally in Santos, Brazil,
she made Pilada, a documentary about pickup games around the world.
(02:11):
She's been using soccer as a way into stories ever since.
Back in July of two thousand and four, I stood
with my teammate on the side of a dirt road
in e t i Aim, Brazil, holding out my thumb
attempting to hitchhike. It's a professional foot juball practice. We
played for Santos the most storied club in Brazil, and
(02:33):
this was our daily routine. My teammate would bat at
my thumb and mumble at me in Portuguese, never satisfied
with my technique, We take off after the car, yelling Brigada,
having saved ourselves the forty five minute walked to the field.
As I sat in the backseat, I thought to myself,
if this is what professional women's football looks like in Brazil,
(02:56):
the holy land of the game, what does it look
like in the rest of the world. That question led
me to write my book, and now you can hear
the players stories told in their own voices. Our first
episode is a linko the super Falcon. There are few
places in the world as busy as the a regular
boundary market in Lagos, Nigeria. Legos is the largest city
(03:21):
in all of Africa. It has a population of nearly
fifteen million people, and here it feels like it. The
market is chalk full of stalls and stands, chicken coops
and overflowing baskets of fruits and vegetables and lots of people.
So many people hustling and moving and shouting and selling,
(03:41):
balancing goods on their heads as they navigate the maze
of the market. This is where thirteen year old Josephine
Trigue has been selling fruit every afternoon for the past
four years, carrying a tray of mangoes and bananas on
her head. But today is different. Today it feels like
she has a secret because yesterday her life changed. A
(04:06):
scout knocked on thep ply with door of her family's
one room home and told her parents she had what
it took to be a professional football player. Man that
I think that the I sawed almost everything, because you
know there's this energy that gone, you know when you
are having when you are doing something and you know
something is going to come up from this. My life
(04:27):
is going to change after this. Now she needed cleats.
Her mother, the owner of a roadside fruit stand, had
told her she could keep ten cents out of every dollar.
This meant that every mango she sold got her one
step closer to cleats, to football, to her future. Several
boys had ridden the golden football ticket out of a
(04:47):
regular They found professional careers in Nigeria, in Tunisia, as
far away as Sweden. Josephine wanted to do the same thing.
I keep telling my mom when I was selling in
the market. One day, you're gonna see me in the TV.
But as everyone told her, you're a girl. That doesn't
(05:11):
happen to girls. This is the story of Josephine's relentless
pursuit of her dreams and her determination to prove everyone wrong.
(05:31):
Money one days, nobody here's Gwen. When Josephine was born,
the third daughter in the family, her father disappeared for
three days. I know he's actually waiting for you, a
male child, because of his family. When they gave it
(05:53):
to me, wasn't at the hospital. He wasn't present when
he came. He left. It was like if he made again,
So it was that's happy about it. He didn't even
show up. He was disappointed to have a daughter, while
she was disappointed to be born in the poverty. All
the time, I always asked my dad why we're white.
We're staying in around them apartment with everyone inside the one.
(06:18):
We have five on the floor and my mom and
my dad on the bed. So we have to create
a space whenever I want to sleep in the night,
so we have to like take the long sulfa and
put on top of the shot sofa, so we have
like a space and that space. We have to put
a math on the floor and we sleep. My leg
is gonna be on my sister's head, so my oldest
(06:39):
sister leg is going to be on my head. During
the days, Josephine and her sister fell in love with football,
playing in the dirt with the boys. Their father did
not approve. It was like, you cannot believe because it's
for men, You're gonna be like a man. I don't
want my check to be like your man. But Nko
(07:00):
barely heard these talks from her father, and one day
he actually watched her. It was a game between they're
part of the neighborhood and another part of the neighborhood.
Three kids against three other kids, and everybody for some
reason was watching, and there was this raucous, excited feeling
in the air that did the rain is falling. I
took the boat from the back and dremble almost everybody
(07:23):
in I scool Scott against the guys, and we do
was maybe she's good. Maybe she's good. So he was happy.
He was just surprised to see that what people are
seeing is true. She's good. But even that day had
not changed his mind. When a local coach named Tico
knocked on their door and invited Josephine and her sister
(07:46):
to play for his team. Her father wasn't having it.
The first day to cooking to our house, it was
that I want to see your dad, and my dad
is really my dad is a tough man. My dad said,
you don't need to come to this house anymore to
take my child to football because she's a woman. I
don't want that to look like a man. Partico is
(08:07):
actually so scared of my father because my dad definitely
means it. When they said I don't want to see
your mouse, you don't need to come. He's gonna call
the police on So Tico left and went to talk
to my mom. I started crying and say if if
I if I will not be able to play football,
then I'm gonna die. I keep saying it to my
(08:30):
mom because I know my mom has a soft spot.
You say, a mommy, so you see this ball. See
if I don't play this boll? Say, I will die?
So are you? We die if it's not play that, mommy.
If I don't play football, I will die. You can't
hear your daughter say that and not given this coach
(08:51):
Tico was saying their daughter could be great, that football
could give her a future and a jay. Futures weren't
easy to buy. Her father knew this firsthand. Every day
he left her home to look for work as a
day laborer. One time Josephine followed him and saw him
at the wharf, just waiting. I saw him in a
(09:14):
really bad state. You know, when you don't have a job,
you need to sit. It was just like chicken, he said.
I think he's waiting for someone to choose him. That
day's face is not good. And every time my dad
went to work, he would say he's working, but he's
not working. I didn't tear anybody though. I just know
(09:38):
that my dad is not working. So all this way
we're asking him of money that he gives us money,
he's just squeezing, squeezing from his own side. It doesn't
have a good job at all. So since then, I
don't think I ever asked him about And while we pull,
I don't ever asking. Even though Josephine's father hadn't wanted
(10:06):
a third daughter and had fought her every time she
tried to play football, they were also somehow best friends.
It was obvious to Josephine's sister, Christianna. She's always my
father's favor. Like the two of them, they love each
other very well. Her father was also one of those
guys who was good at giving people nicknames, like he
(10:26):
big Dan name and just give it to you. Dan
name is the name is going to be called like
me called Micbaco. Baco is like a plywood. So when
my dad is telling me that Micbaco, he means that
slim and strong. I was that what did you call me? This?
What you always called me? This name? Her skinniness earned
(10:51):
her another nickname, one that her family still uses to
this day. It came during one particularly windy training with
Coach t O at the military field, when turning her
oversized jersey into a sale. My shot was really big
and we wanted to start training, so we need to
(11:12):
like take a around around the beach. He started and
drizzling like a lot of wind. Daddy. I noticed that
I'm running, but the wind is taking me backwards at
some boy shouts, see how you're running like a linko.
A Linko is the name of a character on the
popular Nigerian sitcom Papa Jasco. He's a famously skinny boy
(11:37):
with a signature walk, and we have a little kids
that are training the other side. So all the kids
started shouting Lincoln. So that was how the name came up.
The name just came like that. The day I went home,
my sister was like, Daddy, your daughter's new name is
a Lincoln. My dad was laughing the old nighble. Everybody
(11:59):
know I am Lincoln. It wasn't long before another coach
knocked on her door, a scout from one of the
best professional women's teams in Nigeria, the Pelican Stars. They
came from far away, from a city called Calabar in
the southernmost tip of the country. It was more than
a fourteen hour drive and the bus was leaving the
(12:21):
next day. So when this guy came, when he first
came to the door, and you know, my dad said,
so you want to take my daughter to that's far
please Calaba for how many years? So the man was like, no,
your daughter is good, We will will take her to Calaba.
Will be giving us some money, will be paying your salary.
(12:44):
So my dad was like, no, she's too young. How
would she be able to take care of herself? At first,
my dad stand up, He wasn't taking it because I've
never traveled that far with people that I don't know.
You say, if you don't go away from my house,
maybe I'm gonna come place when you. It was insulting
in every manner my mom King, and my mom was
(13:08):
just like trying to persuade in. People are watching, Daddy
because they noticed that in some footballer coach King. So
the compound was a little bit, a little bit fool Daddy,
like everybody are looking. But the old place was quiet.
It was my dad voice and a King's voice and
my mom's voice and my cry. I was saying, if
(13:28):
I don't play football, Daddy, if I don't play football,
I'm going to die you. So that is when my
mom started talking to my dad saying, let's give it
to try. And the next morning, A Lincoln took a
bus with half a dozen other girls to a new
life in a new state, playing professional football on grass
for the first time. I started football on a bison.
(13:52):
When I come to the grass, it was like football
was too sweet for me. When I'm playing it, I'm
just flowing um like I'm like maybe on the sky.
Playing on the grass. This is sweet and it's easy
you can pass the boys a little without people bumping,
because the grass was really smooth and I was running.
(14:12):
I wasn't even tired. And after spending her whole life
sleeping in one room with six other people, she was
giving a room to share with only one other player.
I said, I used stevious this room. You know, I
was really happy. I was like, so I first called
(14:35):
my mom. Mom, can you believed that me and somebody's
gonna share one room? One room and we have toilets,
we have bedroom, were kitchen inside, And in this moment,
she knew she would find a way to get her
family out of a jugular. You know, when you don't
have something and you you actually experienced a little bit
(14:58):
of it, you will be dreaming about it, like I'm
gonna walk out to get this. My first month in
that place in Pelicans that were just saying, O God,
I know I'm going to have a place. We're gonna
be comfortable like this. That is, I keep saying it.
I don't even know how I'm gonna do it, but
I know I'm gonna do it. But my mom, they
(15:19):
don't take teams serious because of course she's also if
I say something when I wake up that I have
a cow in my dream. Then I have a house.
They will say, Okay, it's malaria, it's tie. They don't
even believe it. They say it's malaria, you have a fever.
(15:40):
But I keep saying it all the time that I'm
going to buy a house. I'm gonna buy a house.
I'm gonna be the house for you. I called A
Linco's mom and A Lincoln's sister, Christiana and Legos. I asked,
when she told you she would build you a house,
did you believe her? Well that done? When she said,
(16:02):
Mom brought me she will built house, should we back
up from me? I didn't think said will be really yeah,
my mom would be saying that she's seeking the head.
She just did dreaming that. My mom then she just
encouraged us to play football, but she never really believed
that the outcome. We did this huge. In two and eight,
(16:28):
for the first time, FIFA, soccer's global ruling body, was
hosting an under seventeen Women's World Cup. Nigeria was creating
a team, and A Lincoln was one of more than
fifty girls invited to try out. I was pretting every day,
see move me a big like movie. Please pray for
me my moment, just say one of the two players.
(16:52):
She don't know what it means, you know me. I
was just saying, good please, my hartwork, this is not
my heartwork is gonna shoot to day they called the finalist.
I called my family and I told them about it
because the names are going to come out from in
the newspapers. My mom heard about it in the market. See,
(17:14):
your daughter name is in the newspaper. The daughter qualified
to them one of the players going to Guinea konakre
she's on the second tea player now. So that is
when the first time they heard about my name in
the newspaper. My mom was like, so, my pikame name
can I entered this paper. Pickin means my child, my
child name can be in the newspaper. Our first game
(17:38):
is Guinea Kona Krei and we need to travel by
a So that was my first plane. I was just
thinking that God, please, I just don't want to die
this young. I was shouting. I was crying holding the
plane seats. So when the plane started having a little
bit of the turbulence on the air, it was mad.
(18:00):
I couldn't even continue. Man, that experience was. It was awesome,
but it wasn't It wasn't easy. Number one thing I
was thinking now, I'm I'm beginning to leave the dream
that on the seventh team makes me to realize that
this boy is going places. In May, she traveled to
(18:23):
New Zealand for the main event, the Under seventeen World Cap,
and the games were going to be televised that day.
The energy went off. So the the other neighbor, yeah,
is he has a generator, so they own the generator.
So they were like, come and see your child. Your
child is playing, Come and see your child. This is
(18:44):
an honor for everyone who first in the neighborhood. So
they invite my dad inside their house and that was
the first time that man can actually call my dad
inside his own hours to come and watch the TV.
So I was playing and you know, the only boos
that is shouting. They have never watched anybody in the TV,
(19:07):
like you know, somebody you know, like somebody from your
neighborhood in the TV. It has never help put in
in my place. Christiana was there that day. Everybody was
shouting Alco a Linko, a Linco, now you had your score,
one go. Everybody watched outing Alco is not link that score?
Why everybody was shouting that Linco because she was She
(19:29):
really played well in that match. He really played weight.
So after the game, after everything, I called them and
I can't hear the voice and the back anybody shouting
every shout to me. Do you play where you did well?
My dad was proud of you. You know this I've
never had My dad has never come to Navy Barretts
(19:50):
to watch me play football since since I've been playing
football all my life. The Navy Barracks was the dirt
field close to a jacula. It was a safe place
to play and many Nigerian grades had beginnings on that field.
But her dad didn't watch her until this national team
game on television. I think that was that was everything
(20:12):
to my father. My dad was extremely happy after that.
Given a calling was actually you are looking so big
in the TV. What's indivial life? You are so small.
So after that day, my dad was so amazed. I
would like that was the best experience about if your
parents are watching you play and they have never watched
(20:35):
you before. It was the first time, so it was
really good for me. And the day she came back,
the entire neighborhood was waiting for her something. Her sister
and her mom. Still remember if you see the starting people,
we are shouting. When I came back. That is when
I put the money down. I said that you c
(20:58):
the football. Now you say she didn't play. This is
the book. This is the dollar. I've never seen dollar.
That was the first time my mom was seeing dollar
for the first time. My dad too, So my mom are,
I was like, so give this dollar. Never seen the life.
(21:22):
Not long after that, A Lincoln gets scooped up by
the best team in the country, the River Angels. The
roster boasted nearly all national team players, and in May
two thousand and ten, at just eighteen years old, A
Lincoln joined the Nigerian senior national team to play in
a friendly against North Korea. The way their woman up,
(21:43):
he scares me. They are women of like like militree men.
That country is different from everywhere being to our own life.
To you, everybody is wearing the same clothes. The funds
that came to watch, they're all wearing like dark loud
T shirt. Everything was just seeing in the stadium the noise.
(22:04):
So that day I was super skid, but I actually
did my best as a young player. I really, I
really played at the boats. Mende's girls are good. A
Lincoln usually talked with her family a lot every day,
(22:25):
but since she'd been in North Korea, her phone had
been quiet. Yeah, my dad, we are clues. If I
call him, he's not picking up. I called my mom,
called my Sister's got the two of them putting on
picking up. See me. They have a problem with their phone.
No one answered for five days. Finally her sister picked up.
(22:46):
She was so sorry, our phone has been so bad
because we don't have energy, and so okay, I understand,
but why everybody say they are fine? But A Lincoln
knew that things were not fine. So when the t
he made it back to Nigeria, she caught the next
pass back home that day. I just took the night
(23:06):
Boss and go to Legos. They takes a maybe like
eight or nine hours. It's a road trip. Inside the Boss,
I was just like I couldn't sleep. You know, it's
a blood thin I just feel something that's wrong with me.
(23:26):
I was just bringing that we should reach Ellie, like
the boss should move really fast, let me know what
is happening, Like I hope it's not something serious. The
moment I went home, I saw a lot of people
crying all the way to our house. I said, I
don't know why. Why is everybody? Then I know that
(23:47):
my dad's dead. I couldn't stand it. I have to
run away. I couldn't even sleep in the house. I
just run away and went to another place and sleep
past a night in the or. I was angry because
I wasn't there for him. That is what I just feel.
I wish I'm in Nigeria, if we're not in Korea.
(24:10):
I think I could have maybe metal when it was
in the hospital battling for his life, everybody was there
with him. It is just me. I wish they told me.
I told him. At least I could have even called
on video just to hear him, even if he's not talking.
Only is brittain for me to just yet something about him. Lastly,
(24:33):
he could have been good. I didn't even see him.
He wouldn't. I didn't even touch him. Nothing. If you
told me that my dad's gonna die house and never
I never believed that is dead because he's full of life.
That man is so strong man. I've never felt that
(24:55):
way before. It's like something left me that day and
I saw it, the dead body. I never believed that
a big man like that can just die and it
cannot talk. It was just silent. You couldn't say anything.
We are opening. It could just open his mouth to
see something. It's painful. In her father, she had lost
(25:19):
her best friend and the patriarch of her family. A
Linco and her family are part of the Ebo ethnic group,
and the loss of the patriarch without a direct male heir,
is a big deal. It depends on individual families, and
it depends on the man status. But generally there is
this belief that if a man does not have a
(25:40):
son and dies, that that such a man had lived
a worthless life and that there will be nobody to
continue his lineage, and after his brothers contemporaries die, the
man will be forgotten. That Professor Gloria Chuco she's the
(26:02):
chair of Africana Studies at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County,
and she specializes in gender dynamics and Ebo culture. No
one in a Linco's father's Ebo village helps the family
of women with a burial. They are left to fend
for themselves. At twenty years old a Linko pays for
her father's funeral almost entirely by herself. I think that
(26:25):
Buryer make me like I need just so you need
to step up. I was just like I need to
have a house. I saw a lot of players building
houses in reverse angels. I'm our manager, then she's actually
the manager of She always encouraged young players use your
money wisely. What you do for your family is what
(26:48):
is what they're going to remember you off. So she
encouraged every one who for us to get the land.
She always remind us in every day, every night, remember
to see I remember to see, remember your amnipaku. So
I just go to the land inside a place in
it could inside legals about a place for five never
(27:11):
is in dulas is. I think. So every money I
made in national team, I didn't even spend it. I
was saving every penny. It took five years to build
the house. Every year the home went up little by little,
room by room, and by two thousand and fifteen, her
(27:32):
mom and sisters had a place they could call their own.
And this isn't just a Linko story. Many Nigerian women's
players have also been able to save money and change
their families lives. The Nigerian Women's Football League is one
of the longest standing women's professional leagues in the world,
(27:52):
first starting in Here's the Minadwa the current head of
women's football at the Nigerian Football Federation. And these girls,
most of them come from poor backgrounds. They grew up struggling.
They saw their parents struggling. So by getting into football
and making it with the little they have, a lot
of them are the breadwinners. They do basically all everything
(28:14):
for their family. It gives you know, it gives them
a leeway to see the world, make it in life
and then help their family members and other people too.
So it does help. It changes their life. It does
change their life because of the country's investment in the
women's game. The Super Falcons have a history of being
(28:35):
the best team in Africa. To be fair, and the
Super Falcons are the champions of Africa. We won nine
African Cup of Nations. We have about eleven tattoos to
our name, but we're the best in Africa anyway, the
Super Falcon so you know, we we not want to
try and connectrate the world. But they also have something
(28:57):
of a World Cup curse. They're only advanced to the
quarterfinals once in World Cup history. In and for the
last two decades, they've been pitted against stiff competition in
the group stage where teams fight to qualify. It happens
in two thousand and three points to the middle the
(29:19):
United States of America five and in two thousand and
seven closing out their World Cup but to lose by
this score against the United States, that's really like a
moral victory for them and two thousand eleven jo It's
a story that Nigerian sports journalist at Anca Oya del
(29:42):
A has seen over and over again. We all know
when it comes to women's soccer, women's football in the world,
the Americans are top notch, the Germans a top notch,
the Swedes a top notch, and we find ourselves always
drawing one of these three teams in a group. We
always hope to avoid the Americans, the Germans and the Suites.
(30:05):
Bring on any other team, we feel we have what
it takes to match them, but then somehow we just
get to draw these guys we called our group of
death when you give us a very strong team, and
that has been the major problem for Nigeria. In two
thousand and fifteen, they once again landed in the Group
of Death, but Alinko and her teammates were all hope.
(30:25):
Just one year earlier, a good portion of the roster
had wowed the soccer world at the Under twenty World Cup,
and while they ultimately lost to Germany in the final,
they had dominated the game. Most watching the tournament would
have described the Nigerians as the most talented youth team
in the world. One year later, the senior side was
(30:46):
composed of many of the same players, twenty year olds
eager to stun the favorites in their group Sweden, Australia
and the United States. The American game, it was like
the highness. I wouldn't lie to you. It was like
the finest because we put the game on i S
(31:06):
level force, like we're going to beat these girls. That
day we came to win. We are so close to
win if not for and the one bag that's called man.
That game was really one of my best game I played.
Eschimely good. A Linko is a center back. She strips
(31:30):
the ball off of incoming forwards in a way that
is absolute and intimidating. Then she distributes coolly and definitively
Courtney d K was one of the younger teammates playing
with a Lingo in that World Cup. I was very
intimidated by her because she's ruthless, and so I was
going up against her in practice and she was just
(31:53):
dominating everything. She would go down to tackle you as
hard as she could. If you're going going up again, stir.
But then you know she'll talk to you after the
game and it will be like nothing happened. Even though
the Nigerians don't make it out of group, a Linko
didn't go unnoticed. Her agent got her a contract to
finish out the American professional season with the Washington Spirit.
(32:16):
A Linka would leave the River Angels and for the
first time, play professional soccer on another continent. But before
she took off for the US, there was something she
wanted to do for her mom. So when I came back,
I bought my mom sell funitures. The funitures because she
has never eaten in the only dining table before. So
(32:37):
I took out to the funiture show and I was like, mo, me,
I've seen a lot. I've seen some nice stuff in
my life, and I would like you to experience little water.
I asked a Linko's mom what she remembered from that day.
Her sister Christiana helped explain, Mama by what I was
(33:00):
a Lincoln. You can't have follow these things now this desire.
Nicole was laughing at us. They moved me calm down,
um here to buy all these things for you. So
my mother, my mother shouted and say, wow, you want
to buy the all these things for me, so that
they are Linko box, blend, our new couch, television, said
so many other things. So nigive they do our distance
(33:23):
for me for my life upon this basket, this sofa
sign no believe for my life. That day I cry,
I cried. I thank God, she says. She knelt down
and she was crying because so many people have been
(33:45):
mocking at right from where she was giving birth to
all of us, that she doesn't have the male child,
that female you and now of no use, that nobody
will take care of her in our old age. So
what male children can do our female you not doing
it for her. So she was happy and she was
crying at the same time INDs and for mutual house.
(34:06):
So she said she was really good to to go.
She was thanking God that what other male childn't can
do that our own daughter. He's doing it for Between
joining the team mid season and visa technicalities, A Lincoln
only played in two games for the Washington Spirit, but
she loved those two games and she was hopeful for
(34:29):
the next season until the team delivered some news. They
just told us that our coach is going to leave.
But when the new coach is coming, the new coach
did not even see us play, did just wavers. It's
quite crazy. So we are thinking they're gonna weave us
to another team boats they just wave us out. After
(34:52):
only three months, A Lincos dream of playing in the
US is over. Instead, she signs a one year contract
with Swedish club Victory, with the option to extend. Nagosi
Sonya A Kobe, her teammate from the Washington Spirit, does
the same every game. I am winning like me and Sonia.
(35:14):
If she didn't get m VP, I'm getting If she
didn't get it, I'm getting it. So we are just
like the eye of the team. If Sonya's called me,
I danced, Sonia would want to meet me. We started
dancing and Lincoln played every minute of every match until
she couldn't. The last two games from the first round.
(35:37):
That is when I started developing pains. Maybe I was
looking the pain will go, the pain will go. I
started I've seen it and going to my fisio. But
I was like playing with it. Well when the pain
was increasing, my leg was swollen and I'm still using it.
We did emirate the result was bad. The he said
(36:00):
what was like, they need to do a surgery. So
I was like, I don't know if I would be
able to do surgeries. This is the need are bad.
So I'm just scared of bad result because I might
the peak of my career. I'm not even enjoyed the
professional life yet. After the surgery to Kim and said
(36:20):
the case on the knees not good, I was on
my bed with Sonia. I was crying. That is when
the coaches came to me and said that they won't
give me another contract. That is where I started having
the problem of my life. I think she had a
(36:40):
great sense of how to play the game. I recall
it the ability to read the play and so she
had some difficulties with a knee, but before that she
was flying. It was one of the best mid defenders
in the league. So that's Thomas Mortenson, one of our
(37:01):
linco's coaches. A bit we had a medical opinion on
what I mean. It's hard also because football is both
taking care of people, but it's also a business, so
it's hard to keep players. When our doctors said that
she wouldn't be able to play and if we couldn't
give her a contract from next yep, that was really sad,
but that's football sometimes. Also, if one thing is clear,
(37:32):
a Linko is resilient. At thirty years old, she has
accomplished more than anyone ever expected, so it's no surprise
that when she got this devastating news, she still picked
herself back up and found a way. Here's Stefan extr And,
who coached a inco in Sweden when she was trying
to make it back to the first division. She had
(37:52):
this fantastic fighting spirit. When she came to a game,
she did every in for the team to concede a
clean sheet or scoring a goal. I remember she took
the players together and then she were talking about that
(38:15):
she would do anything and everything to help the club
and the players. And when the Africa Cup of Nations
comes around, a Linko is back on the national team
where she plays for her country and ultimately helps Nigeria
win the whole tournament at Nigeria are the nine Government.
(38:41):
I think that was my most happiest moment because that
was the competition of My mom personally watched me. She
watched me. Every game that came back from injury were
by the c I can not play foot point. I
was really happy. I was really happy because I work.
(39:01):
Every Body is watching, so we will come to my house.
They will be making nice O lincle. Everybody wants shouted,
I saw your sister, I saw yourself. Bad are legal
is modera? O liver is every everyone who everybody wants
to be like a legal. But after the high of that,
wind E Linco was soon faced with the facts the
(39:24):
injury on her knee is too significant to continue with
a professional soccer career. Man When the doctor said you
can't if you keep playing, you're going to have complication
on your knee, I would like to do. It's not easy.
Thank you, like to you. I'm just feel like I lost.
That is how I'm just saying. I said that I'm
(39:46):
a loser. I I'm too good, I'm too good to
store football. I'm just having this old thing because I
know I'm at the top of my game. Injury is
no good, especially when you come from me. You know
you're the one doing everything for them. This thing up
unto you. You can't even go back home and they
take care of you. No job in Ena. I don't
(40:08):
blame them, though, I blame my society. My sisters. They
went to school, their guarduate, but they don't have jobs.
They are only selling their petty trade. I've never done
anything apart from football. This is my life. You know,
we would like go for me. There's no job in
that the Injuria, so many people went to school. I
did not even go to university. I don't have that
(40:32):
big connection and enjoyed that. They can't even help me
to get a good job. You know, when you lost
something that is something that is your life. It's an explainable.
The feeling I have about me getting the press is
one thing. I would never know how to express this
because football was just my everything. Football scholar Lauren Dubois
(40:58):
once wrote, soccer at its heart is all about creating
openings where there seem to be none. Every player on
the pitch lives by this rule. This truth, of course,
extends beyond the field. If you can find the opening,
you can change your life. A Linko's talent is the
reason she was able to build a home for her family,
and now as she recovers from injury, she's running into
(41:21):
new barriers, navigating spaces she's never been in before. Then
miss every day, every day, every day, I miss it,
and if I talk about it, I won't sleep. I'll
be thinking during me about Footbay every day. So that
is why I don't keep in torch with them at
the football My football team meets in Africa because they
(41:44):
want to know what's up with me. Good and even
you know, I'll come to this point in my life boots,
I tried. I'm still fighting for it too. I need
to fight for life. One thing that makes me actually
really like I came out from that depression was like
a lot of people don't eat in Nangeria right now
(42:08):
because the state of Nangera is bad since last year.
I know when people am sending money to even when
I don't have money, I said them even just maybe
daty dollars, they will be grateful. So at least I'm
even seeing more than daty dollars now, So who am
I to be complaining. I know, no matter how I'm struggling,
(42:28):
I've always had this strong mentality about it. In Nigeria,
football gives women the opportunity to make a living, to
support their families, to be a breadwinner. Josephine Chiku is
living proof of this, and though she's been forced to
move on from the game, that same determination, resilience and
(42:52):
drive that took her to the largest stage in football
will lead her right to her next opening. So over
the next six weeks will be sharing more or inspiring
stories of incredible women who will do anything to play
the game they love. I'm Hannah Waddingham and this is
Hustle Rule. To celebrate the series launch of Hustle Rule,
(43:15):
We've got a two episode special drop. Listen now to
our next episode play away, the Game for Nobody. Hustle
(43:40):
Rule is a production of Waffle Iron Entertainment, Range Media Partners,
Observatory Audio, UP Media and I Heart Radio, written and
directed by Gwendolyn oxen Um, hosted by me Hannah wadding Um,
and is based on the book Under the Lights and
in the Dark, written by Gwendolyn Oxenham. The executive producers
are justin Biscun from Waffle Iron Entertainment, Bob Alligan from
(44:01):
Range Media Partners, and Sean Titan from iHeart Radio. Co
written by Ruth Hilton, produced by Gwendolyn Oxenham, Ruth Hilton
and Jordana Glick Franszheim, co produced by Jimmy Jelinek and
Jared Goodstadt, edited by Carry Caulfield, Eric sound design and
mixing by Jeremiah's Immerman. Music by Jeff Peters and Bill
mart Theme song performed by a one Laflair. You'll find
(44:24):
more podcasts from iHeart Radio on the iHeart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Coot Club
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