I fear no foe- Vera Okolo The 19 year old attacker told nigeriasports.com that as an attacker she has always been fearless on the pitch and will not change her attitude just yet.” “I do not fear any one. Why should I? If I fear defenders then I am not fit to be an attacker. When I face a defender I have just two things in mind- beat the defender or get stopped. And since I know I would not get stopped I am confident the next time around”
Okolo told nigeriasports.com that she is not bothered about what people say about her size since it has not in any way impeded her progress in the game. “I was named ‘tiny terror’ by a Nigerian journalist called Dele and that gave me confidence to know that I can do it even though I am smallish.” “We played a friendly game against England and the defenders were very big, yet we knocked three past them and I took them on so I don’t really care about the size of the defenders.” “The friendly against Germany is another test case, and you don’t come bigger than the Germans, yet I was able to hold my own, so lets just wait and see.” All round athlete Vera Okolo did not always start as a footballer as she tried her abilities at handball, soft ball and also the track and field. “When I was in school I used to do other sports but I had to stop because hand ball, soft ball and even the hundred meters and long distance running because we never had any exposure and I needed to be busy always so I started playing football with boy about four years ago” Family history Okolo is fifth in a family of eight boys and two girls and is the second girl. “All my brothers play football but none has made any head way.” “My parents didn’t want me to play football or do sports entirely. It was until my third year in the secondary that I got a scholarship at St Augustine’s Asaba. My school principal then managed to convince my parents to let me play.” After school in 1999, Vera joined her first football club, Fast Focus of Warri, of course with her parents’ approval. “At first my dad refused but I insisted and told him to take it easy since I was at least through with school then so he let me play.” “Now dad is very happy with my strides since adopting the beautiful game” Short on international exposure Okolo’s first International outing was the School sports fiesta in Manchester in 2000 where she scored seven goals. In the 2001 edition she also ended with five goals and was at the last would cup in USA but did not get to play a game. “This Olympics will be a fight but I know if we put our acts together we will be successful. I hope to play matches and do Nigeria proud” “It’s always a good thing for me to have players like Mercy Akide join the team because I always learn a thing or two from them. Their experience has always proved to be valuable.”
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