Philomena Abakah

“It’s a dream come true”

“For me, it’s always been an honor to wear the nation’s badge”

“There’s a lot of difference between the football operation in Ghana and Tanzania. In Ghana, there is little or no support but the story is different here. Because of how passionate they are, fans here are even able to fund a club when they are embarking on a trip, that alone is motivating enough to fight for the club”

“Personally, I’m not demotivated. We know the level of Women's football in our world. It’s getting the deserved attention now, so every opportunity should be taken. Hopefully, it gets better -- we played qualifiers not knowing what the reward will be”

“We are not under any pressure. The drip we came to Morocco with should tell you we are okay. Everyone in the team is confident [that we can succeed]. We are not only here as representatives from East Africa, we are here to compete as well to fight for the crest and give our utmost best in this tournament”

“Evelyn Badu is Evelyn Badu, I am Philomena Abakah, I'm not under any pressure to do what she did, as much as I want to do better which am sure and believe I can, her achievement is not what I look up to, I am more interested in what my team can achieve together, I can’t be what she did if Simba doesn’t go far in the tournament. The focus is the club, not individual accolades. If I get it, glory to God but there’s no pressure or competition to do what she did.”

“I want to go there and do my best with the team and go as far as we can because everyone will be watching our performance, me in particular, most Ghanaians will be interested. The focus is to excel and progress in my career ambition and get the Simba family happy, they’re very supportive and I hope not to let them down”

“Initially, when I came here, I was not okay, it was a bit challenging, food and language and being in a different setting [which] is normal when you go to a new club outside your country. But as time goes on, I’ve got to understand things here and settled well”

“We are not only here as representatives from East Africa, we are here to compete as well to fight for the crest and give our outmost best in the tournament”

“I want to go there and do my best with the team and go as far as we can because everyone would be watching our performance and for me in particular, most Ghanaians will be interested”