Onyi Echegini interview: Super Falcon, Supa Fly – PSG’s new Nigerian star

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Last year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup provided the biggest proof yet of Nigeria’s potential to shake up international football’s established elite. That the Super Falcons also have one of the club game’s outstanding individuals of 2024, in Jennifer Onyi Echegini, only adds to the spice ahead of the Olympic tournament.

Nigerians shining before international audiences may not be new, but an unmatched age of excellence and appeal appears to be in increasing effect. Burna Boy and Ayra Starr’s recent place on Glastonbury’s prestigious Pyramid Stage – among strong Naija presence across the line-up – was another prize feat to solidify Afrobeats’ now-inescapable impact.

A West African pulse beating in time with styles from other parts of the world – much like Nigeria’s footballing flavour today. Of the Nigerians doing it big around the globe, Onyi Echegini has shot up the charts in 2024: the Dutch/English-raised attacking talent with Imo State parentage, recently making a stellar start to her career in Italy, by way of the United States.

“I think I’ve took in a bit of everything and kind of just made it into me,” says the 23-year-old, a Florida State University sensation, and an instant hit at Juventus after arriving in January. “Whenever I meet people and they say, ‘Where are you from?’ I say, ‘Mainly, I’m from England,’ or I say I’m from the Netherlands or I’m Nigerian, so I never really just say I’m from one place.”

“I kind of associate myself with everywhere, because they’ve all helped shape me into who I am today, on and off the field. So, yeah, three completely different countries, even four with the US – five, Italy!”

A sixth officially came into play when she was unveiled this week as Paris Saint-Germain’s latest eye-catching signing, following England goalkeeper Mary Earps, France defender Griedge Mbock and Netherlands forward Romée Leuchter. PSG (men)’s former Nigeria maestro Jay-Jay Okocha also joined the welcome messages, providing a video for the club’s social media.

Born in the Netherlands, she would call Nijmegen home before moving to London at 11 years old.

“I lived in Erith for a little bit and now my family lives in Dartford.”

The one-time Bexleyheath Academy student was a youth player for Charlton Athletic, Millwall, and latterly, Arsenal. Alongside the flashes of Dutch and English in her footballing foundation, one key identity piece she carries today was also acquired growing up.

The nickname ‘Joe’ (spelled out by her initials: Jennifer Onyi Echegini) had its roots in the classroom.

“We got given an email address with all our acronyms and then I kind of went with it – ‘I kind of like this…I’ll just stick to this.’”

Softly and steadily spoken, her match-turning contributions have been making enough noise on their own. Having been honoured in January as collegiate women’s soccer’s top player (with the MAC Hermann Trophy), ten Juventus goals in half a season helped secure Serie A’s Best Under-23 Player award for 2023/24.

Even without joining PSG, Joe was heading to France this summer – to the Olympic tournament with Nigeria. The Super Falcons also have Paris as their desired destination – possibly in the quarter-final, or the gold-medal game – but Bordeaux and a date with Brazil calls first.

A second major tournament arrives for Joe off the back of a supporting role in last year’s World Cup, as impressive Nigeria contested the last 16. Her increased prominence since then goes hand in hand with thriving at 2nd-placed Juventus in the past few months.

She speaks of having enjoyed life outside football in her Moncalieri base, a few miles south of central Turin. Teammates, meanwhile, included the somewhat-legendary company of Italian attacking greats Cristiana Girelli and Barbara Bonansea, ex-Iceland captain Sara Björk Gunnarsdóttir, and former Italy skipper Sara Gama.

“I’ve noticed that a lot of those players teach me on the field; I like the fact that they correct me. If they see something I’m not doing well, because I’m still young, they’re like, ‘Joe, do this.’

“I appreciate that because it’s making me better, and it helps me understand things more; you can understand football, but teams do things differently.”

She had to brave it on her own, however, ahead of an away game with title rivals Roma.

“It was the night before dinner, and I had to stand up on the chair and sing a song; it was ‘Young, Wild & Free’ (by Snoop Dogg and Wiz Khalifa featuring Bruno Mars). In college, we just had to fold the towels – I’d actually prefer that!”

Her synced-up dance steps with Canada midfielder Julia Grosso (now of Chicago Red Stars) were another frequent feature of her time at Juve, while Joe comes from a national team where light footwork is an everyday essential. There is deep-rooted cultural meaning in Nigeria’s relationship with rhythm and song, and while the outside world gets its intermittent glimpses of their celebratory spirit, feeling it from within is a rare privilege.

Debuting internationally in 2022, Joe has been savouring her place in the show ever since.

“Oh, yeah, when we win, we celebrate! In the locker room, you should see us: music, dancing, we celebrate the wins.

“I like that so much, and as a team, we kind of all come from different backgrounds, so these little things, we appreciate so much.”

That Super Falcons fever was swarming in Brisbane last July, as they stunned World Cup co-hosts Australia with a 3-2 group-stage win. Clips surfaced online of the Nigeria players in post-match party mode.

“When we win, with an opportunity like that, in front of 50,000, we’re going to go back to the locker room, we’re going to dance, for a long time! We’re going to praise God and thank Him, and we’re just going to celebrate.

“It’s different, because on other teams, we wouldn’t do that; you kind of high-five and then you go about your day. It’s nice either way, but I like the way Nigeria does it.”

Such scenes continue to be typically teed up by their last line of defence – Paris FC’s penalty-saving enthusiast Chiamaka Nnadozie.

“Chiamaka’s the main one; she brings the speaker, she plays the music,” Joe confirms. “Rema, Davido, any kind of music, but mainly Afrobeats.”

Despite Joe’s Motörhead t-shirt for one of her ‘gameday fits’ in college, you probably won’t find her endangering the speakers in the name of Lemmy any time soon.

“Before the game, (I like to listen) on my own, headset (on). I listen to Afrobeats, which is more like a mixture of hype and chill; you can dance a little bit but it’s not too crazy.

“Or I listen to Lauryn Hill; emotional but I like listening to it because it makes me happy, and I just want to be happy before the game!”

The latter would also be her unequivocal choice if she could see any act from all-time perform live. She would, though, kick it back to the ‘90s, with a seven-time-platinum triple threat.

“Lauryn Hill. Lauryn…Hill!

“With the Fugees, the whole band.”

Even if Joe’s own career breakthrough is playing out in the hyper-age of social media, she remembers when the only TikTok to worry about was the Kesha song, and a touchscreen phone was not yet taken for granted!

“I remember I had an LG Cookie phone. I think I had Jason Derulo on it; it was that (sings), ‘Oohhh whatcha sayyyy?’ (‘Whatcha Say’).

“I lost that phone after; I was like nine years old. That was one of the first few songs that I downloaded, but I like all kinds of music.

“I like Justin Bieber a lot, Summer Walker, SZA; just cool music, cool vibes.”

Her World Cup adventure was certainly enough to warm her soul, even in the Australian winter. Having grown up keenly aware of her heritage but living in another part of the world, did suddenly being on the inside of such a meaningful experience for the country unlock a piece of connection that she had not yet felt?

“Honestly, yeah, and it’s amazing that you’ve put it that way, because I’ve never been able to explain it. Because I’ve always felt like I was Nigerian, but when I joined the national team, I really felt like I dug into my heritage and my culture more, because I’d always kind of resonated more with the Netherlands or England; the culture, the food, the language, the people.

“You kind of forget your history in a way because you’re not reminded every day, so it was nice when I joined the national team and there’s all these people that are from the same areas as my family. They like to pray in the morning, pray at night, they like to sing and dance, and it’s just really nice to be around that; just good energy.

“They’re just happy and grateful people, and I like being around that.”

After the high of advancing to the knockout phase – unbeaten and at Olympic champions Canada’s expense – a last-16 clash with EURO winners England had them cast as underdogs again. While penalty heartbreak would ultimately follow a goalless draw, that came after a white-knuckle ride for their opponents.

Another near-50,000-strong Brisbane crowd saw Ashleigh Plumptre crack a first-half effort against the crossbar from outside the box – a shot felt around the watching world – while what appeared a rock-solid penalty claim in extra-time for a shove on Michelle Alozie was not given. The 87th-minute red card for England’s Lauren James, who had dazzled in the group stage, seemed to take any attacking impetus with it, leaving the Lionesses effectively hanging on for penalties.

Joining the action at the start of extra-time, Joe is asked how perceptible England’s retreat and subsequent invitation of pressure was.

“I feel like they definitely backed off from us, but I feel like that was kind of throughout the whole game. I don’t feel like they were less aggressive against us than other teams, but it’s kind of hard to do that against us because we sit really well, and it’s hard to break us down.

“I think they kind of had their ‘oh, shit’ moment and it made them back off a little bit, especially after the red card; Lauren is one of their best players. I just felt all we needed was one goal.”

Joe closed out her 2023 with a spectacular finale to her college years, leading the scoring (16) for Florida State’s first unbeaten team, as the Seminoles lifted a fourth national championship. Playing as a striker, winger and midfielder over the years, she explains why one role feels just right.

“I’d say more so a ten, because I have kind of played everywhere, and I like the ten the most because it gives me the most freedom to play anywhere really. I feel like I play best when I don’t have a lot of restrictions on me and I just kind of have that creative freedom to do whatever’s fit for that given moment in a game.”

Despite Nigeria’s memorable World Cup, she believes that, in an Olympic group with Japan, Brazil and world champions Spain, Randy Waldrum’s side could still be taken lightly by some from the outside.

“I feel like as Nigeria, or any African team, they underestimate our football ability, and they kind of just base us off of strength and speed. It’s always, ‘Oh, they’re strong and powerful,’ but we can also play.

“I feel like a lot of times, teams don’t expect that, and then they’ll be surprised when we start playing around them. I prefer if they don’t expect it, it makes it easier for us, but whenever I hear people talk about Nigeria, it’s always ‘strong’ or ‘fast,’ and I’m like, ‘We’re not just that, you know?’”

Such limiting descriptions are at best lazy, and at worst, rooted in prejudice. Eradicating entrenched, outdated thinking is deeply challenging, but the sport’s communicators have an opportunity – a responsibility – to inform and educate.

To offer more than simply settling for parroting ‘pace and power’ – two words so co-dependent that they deserve a joint-account on Facebook.

“A lot of us grew up playing the exact same way as those England girls or the Dutch girls, so it’s kind of funny when people say we’re just speed and strength,” Joe adds. “We went through the same process growing up, we just chose to represent the Nigerian team.”

Her path in college soccer actually began at Mississippi State University, with a switch to Florida State after three seasons driven in part by the chance to play for incoming coach Brian Pensky. His Tennessee team had once included current Manchester City and Jamaica goal machine Bunny Shaw, and Joe’s numbers would skyrocket at FSU – from scoring 11 in three previous seasons, to 27 in two (with 11 assists).

Ransacking opponents at times alongside freshman ace Jordynn Dudley and present-day pros Jody Brown (Benfica), Leilanni Nesbeth (Chicago Red Stars) and Beata Olsson (AIK), they ended on a blockbuster. A 5-1 College Cup final demolition of a previously-stingy Stanford defence was capped by Joe’s final goal, reacting in the box to lob the goalkeeper (seemingly with her knee!).

In an environment of high-energy encouragement, she had sparkled; never captured better than with her breakdancing on the confetti-scattered turf after their championship success. Silverware aside, her memories of teammates in Tallahassee will always be tied to one locker-room ritual.

“Before the game, we would play the FSU War Chant, and we would do the Nole gesture and start walking around; it would get to a certain part and someone would have to dance in the middle. Then we’d start walking again and the next person dances and we would cheer them on.

“We’d do that before every home game. Yeah…good times!”

She was recently back in America for the Collegiate Women Sports Awards in New York City, and while basketball phenomenon Caitlin Clark took the overall award, Joe triumphed in the soccer category. Unlike last summer, she will shortly embark upon a major international tournament with football already her full-time job – she was on a restaurant shift in London when learning that she was going to the World Cup.

“I knew the roster was coming out and it was making me sick all week; I would go to the bathroom at work every 30 minutes just to check my phone, because this could make or break my shift! Then one time I went and I saw it; I saw the green screen with the names.”

Her rejigged lifestyle this year has also instigated a switch-up in listening habits.

“Back in college, I would listen to music every morning to get me in the mood, because it would be school and practice all day long, so I would play music to increase my dopamine levels in that way and put me in a better mood. Now, I don’t do it as much, because I like my job!”

A noticeable absentee from Nigeria’s Olympic squad is someone with whom Joe found a sense of instant familiarity when joining the set-up. Another player who knows the feeling of coming from a different background, wanting to make the best impression while representing their heritage – ex-England youth international Ashleigh Plumptre.

Denied the chance to be at the Paris Games through injury, she is an immediate selection for Joe here, as she is asked which teammate she would cover a song with.

“Plumptre loves Lauryn Hill as well. We’ve bonded over Lauryn Hill, so maybe we could make a cover.

“‘Forgive Them Father,’ I would do that song; it’s my favourite.”

Her personal prospects of coming in at number one would have been extremely favourable for this January’s NWSL Draft. Before college soccer’s top-rated talent headed instead to Italy, had she received any solid indication of US clubs’ interest?

“I think maybe towards the end, where I had already committed to Juventus – I hadn’t signed at that point – a team reached out about being the number-one pick, but for me, it doesn’t matter whether I’m the first or the last pick. There’s just certain things that I want out of my football career, and I felt like coming to Europe was going to give me that the most, so I made the right decision.

“I think the NWSL’s great in its own way, but in terms of what I need now and the next couple of years to develop into that player that I want to be, I think being in Europe is best for me.”

Her first Champions League campaign is to come, for a revamped PSG team with justifiable hopes of finally winning it, but the next few weeks belong to the national team. They head into Olympic play – a competition with golden significance to Nigerian football overall, after the Super Eagles’ 1996 Atlanta Games glory – feeling a further step refined on their journey.

A leading light among this emerging generation, Joe believes that they can bring fresh finesse to a tournament they have waited 16 years to be part of again.

“After the World Cup, we kind of said bye to a few of the older players that have done a lot for the country and we’ve integrated more younger players. I feel like now it’s more of a mixture of experience with the older players, but also a lot of energy from the younger players, and it’s nice to have that balance.

“Maybe two or three years ago it was more experience and less energy. So, I feel like that’s the difference I could point out, but in terms of tactics…I can’t say anything!

“You’ll see when the time comes!”

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Published by Christian Brookes