Ifeoma Nnenna Dieke (born 25 February 1981) is an American-born Scottish international

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who played as a defender for several professional clubs in Sweden, the United States, and Cyprus. Between 2004 and 2017, she won 123

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

for the

Scotland women's national football team The Scotland women's national football team represents Scotland in international women's football competitions. Since 1998, the team has been governed by the Scottish Football Association (SFA). Scotland qualified for the FIFA Women's World Cup ...

. Dieke was born in Amherst,

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

, to

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

n parents, moving to

Cumbernauld Cumbernauld (; ) is a large town in the Shires of Scotland, historic county of Dunbartonshire and council area of North Lanarkshire, Scotland. It is the tenth List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, most-populous locality in Scotl ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

when she was three years old. Dieke was the first

black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

woman to captain for Scotland, and Dieke and fellow Scot

Kim Little Kim Alison Little (born 29 June 1990) is a Scottish professional association football, footballer who plays as a midfielder for and captains Arsenal W.F.C., Arsenal of the English Women's Super League. Before her retirement from international ...

were the only non-English players selected in the

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

squad for the

2012 London Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

Playing career

Club

Dieke started her football career when she was eight years old, playing for her primary school St Mary's. She later joined Cumbernauld Cosmos, from where she moved to Cumbernauld Ladies. In 1999, she was awarded a scholarship by

Florida International University Florida International University (FIU) is a public research university with its main campus in Westchester, Florida, United States. Founded in 1965 by the Florida Legislature, the school opened to students in 1972. FIU is the third-largest univ ...

, playing for the university's

FIU Golden Panthers The FIU Panthers are the athletic teams representing Florida International University, an American public university located in Miami, Florida. The Panthers currently compete in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I athlet ...

women's soccer team. She graduated in 2003 and joined

Women's United Soccer Association The Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA) was the world's first women's soccer league in which all the players were paid as professionals. Founded in February 2000, the league began its first season in April 2001 with eight teams in the Uni ...

side Atlanta Beat. She started eight of 13 regular season games and scored one goal. The league folded at the end of her first season, and Dieke later played in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

(for

QBIK QBIK is a Swedish football team from Karlstad. In 2005 they achieved promotion to the Damallsvenskan The (; ), known as OBOS for sponsorship reasons, is the highest division of women's football in Sweden. It is one of the best women's leag ...

in 2007 and for

Kristianstads DFF Kristianstads DFF () is a women's association football club from Kristianstad, Sweden. The club is affiliated to the Scania Football Association. History Wä IF was founded in 1935 and their women team played from 1990 to 1994 and again in 199 ...

in 2008) and

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

. In 2009, she joined the

Chicago Red Stars Chicago Stars Football Club is an American professional soccer team based in the Chicago metropolitan area that competes in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). A founding member of the Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) league as the Chic ...

. In the inaugural

2009 Women's Professional Soccer season The 2009 Women's Professional Soccer season served as the inaugural season for WPS, the top level professional women's soccer league in the United States. The regular season began on March 29 and ended on August 9, with the postseason being held ...

, Dieke appeared in 14 games. She was sent off for fouling

Kelley O'Hara Kelley Maureen O'Hara (born August 4, 1988) is an American former professional association football, soccer player. She represented the United States women's national soccer team, United States national team on 160 occasions, winning two FIFA ...

during the Red Stars' 2–0 defeat to

FC Gold Pride FC Gold Pride was an American professional women's soccer club based in the San Francisco Bay Area, which participated in Women's Professional Soccer (WPS). The club replaced the San Jose CyberRays of the defunct Women's United Soccer Associati ...

in May 2010. The following month she was allowed to move to the

Boston Breakers The Boston Breakers were an American professional women's soccer club based in the Boston neighborhood of Allston. The team competed in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). They replaced the original Breakers, who competed in the defu ...

on a free transfer. She started 12 of her 13 appearances for the Breakers in

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

, scoring one goal against her former employers Chicago, for whom she had made five early season appearances. During the WPS offseason in 2011, Dieke joined Cypriot club

Apollon Limassol Apollon Limassol FC (, ''Apollon Lemesou'') is a Cypriot sports club, based in Limassol. It has football, basketball and volleyball teams. Founded in 1954, Apollon FC currently plays in the Cypriot First Division and has won the championship tit ...

on loan from the Breakers. The WPS folded ahead of the 2012 season and Dieke returned to Sweden, signing for

Damallsvenskan The (; ), known as OBOS for sponsorship reasons, is the highest division of women's football in Sweden. It is one of the best women's leagues in the world, and was founded in 1988. The division consists of a league of 14 teams. From 2013, t ...

newcomers

Vittsjö GIK Vittsjö Gymnastik- och Idrottsklubb is a association football, football club from Vittsjö, Sweden. They play in the highest level of women's football leagues in Sweden, the Damallsvenskan. Vittsjö GIK play their home games at Vittsjö IP in Vi ...

. Despite missing almost the entire

2013 Damallsvenskan The 2013 Damallsvenskan, part of the 2013 Swedish football season, is the 26th season of Damallsvenskan since its establishment in 1988. The season began on 13 April 2013 and ends on 20 October 2013. Tyresö FF are the defending champions, having ...

season through injury, Dieke was given a new contract by Vittsjö ahead of 2014. In January 2018, Dieke left Vittsjö after six seasons. In search of a new challenge, she joined newly promoted Damallsvenkan club

IFK Kalmar IFK Kalmar is a association football, football club based in Kalmar, Sweden. The team plays in Sweden's top-division women's league, Damallsvenskan. IFK Kalmar play their home games at Gröndals IP in Kalmar. Current squad . ...

. The move was not successful and with Kalmar adrift at the foot of the league table, Dieke was dropped from the team and released during the mid-season break. It was reported that she was unhappy at Kalmar's failure to strengthen their playing squad. She returned to Apollon in September 2018.

International

Dieke was eligible to represent either

, the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

at international level. She made her Scotland debut in January 2004 against

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

and earned her 50th cap against

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

in May 2009. In October 2008 she scored an

own goal An own goal occurs in sports when a player performs actions that result in scoring points for the opposition, such as when a Association football, footballer puts a ball into their own net. In some parts of the world, the term has become a met ...

in a

UEFA Women's Euro 2009 qualifying Qualifying for UEFA Women's Euro 2009 determined which 11 teams joined Finland women's national football team, Finland, the hosts of the 2009 tournament, to play for the UEFA Women's Championship. Preliminary round 20 teams were divided into 5 g ...

play-off against

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

Nalchik Nalchik (, ; ; ) is the capital city of Kabardino-Balkaria, Russia, situated at an altitude of in the foothills of the Caucasus Mountains; about northwest of Beslan (Beslan is in the Republic of North Ossetia–Alania). It covers an area of ...

. The tie finished 4–4 and Scotland were eliminated on the

away goals rule The away goals rule is a method of tiebreaking in association football and other sports when teams play each other twice, once at each team's home ground. Under the away goals rule, if the total goals scored by each team are equal, the team that ...

, much to Dieke's disappointment: "It hit off my shin, and for me that was the one that knocked us out because it was an away goal. I was beating myself up quite a bit for that." In 2012 Dieke was selected for a place in the

team at the

. Along with Scotland teammate

, Dieke was one of only two non-English players in the squad. She played alongside

Casey Stoney Casey Jean Stoney (born 13 May 1982) is an English professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Football player, player who currently serves as the head coach of the Canada women's national soccer team. A versatile ...

in central defence, but suffered knee ligament damage in the second group match and had to withdraw from the squad. Medical tests showed that she had ruptured an

anterior cruciate ligament The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is one of a pair of cruciate ligaments (the other being the posterior cruciate ligament) in the human knee. The two ligaments are called "cruciform" ligaments, as they are arranged in a crossed formation. In ...

, which prevented her from playing in the remainder of Scotland's

UEFA Women's Euro 2013 qualifying The Qualifying rounds for the UEFA Women's Euro 2013 determined which 11 teams joined Sweden, the hosts of the 2013 tournament, to play for the UEFA Women's Championship. Tie breakers If two or more teams are tied in points the tie breakers are ...

matches. After missing almost two years of international football due to the injury, Dieke was recalled to Scotland's squad for the

2014 Cyprus Women's Cup The 2014 Cyprus Women's Cup was the seventh edition of the Cyprus Women's Cup, an invitational women's football tournament held annually in Cyprus. It took place between 5–12 March 2014. France won the final over defending champions England. Fo ...

. That October she won her 100th cap in Scotland's 2–0

2015 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification – UEFA play-offs The 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification UEFA play-offs decided the eighth and final UEFA qualifier for the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup. Format After conclusion of the group stage the four runners-up with the best record against the sides fir ...

defeat by the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

in Rotterdam. Dieke remained in Scotland's team for

UEFA Women's Euro 2017 qualifying The UEFA Women's Euro 2017 qualifying competition was a women's football competition that determined the 15 teams joining the automatically qualified hosts Netherlands in the UEFA Women's Euro 2017 final tournament. A total of 46 UEFA member nat ...

. With teammate Jo Love, she was awarded a special cap in October 2015 as part of a

UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

-backed programme to honour players with 100 or more appearances for their national teams. When Scotland secured qualification for their first ever major tournament at

UEFA Women's Euro 2017 The 2017 UEFA European Women's Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Women's Euro 2017, was the 12th edition of the UEFA Women's Championship, the quadrennial international Association football, football championship organised by UEFA for the ...

, after several near misses, 36-year-old veteran Dieke announced that she would be retiring from international football afterwards. She played in all three games as Scotland made a limp group stage exit, then confirmed her decision to retire the following month.

Coaching career

Dieke began coaching youth club soccer in the United States from 2000 to 2007. She was named varsity coach for

Palmer Trinity School Palmer Trinity School is an independent, college-preparatory, coeducational Episcopal day school located on 60 acres in Palmetto Bay, Florida (a Miami suburb). The school currently enrolls 800 students in grades 6–12. Palmer Trinity is the ...

in 2019. Dieke was a coach at

Elite Clubs National League The Elite Clubs National League (ECNL) is a national youth soccer developmental league in the United States. It was founded in 2009 as a girls' league and added a boys' league in 2017. Competition format The ECNL is divided by age groups from U- ...

(ECNL) youth club FC Prime of

Sunrise, Florida Sunrise is a city in central-western Broward County, Florida, Broward County, Florida, United States, and is a principal city of the Miami metropolitan area. The population was 97,335 at the time of the 2020 census. History Early history In ...

, from 2020 to 2022. In a ''

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'' report published in November 2022, Dieke alleged that she had experienced sexist behavior from club staff and match officials, and suggested that the ECNL's exclusion of women from leadership roles was "a systemic problem". She derisively compared her tenure to Nigerian politics, which she experienced through her mother's campaigning for office in Nigeria. The ECNL and several of the clubs named in the report responded by denying the allegations or dismissing the complaints, and the league's chief operating officer Jennifer Winnagle stated that more than half of the league's front office staff was female. On April 15, 2022, Dieke was named

Miami-Dade County Miami-Dade County () is a county located in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Florida. The county had a population of 2,701,767 as of the 2020 census, making it the most populous county in Florida and the seventh-most-populous coun ...

girls' soccer coach of the year for classes 4A-2A, recognizing her work managing the Palmer Trinity School Falcons to the county's only regional playoff wins in its classification. In May 2022,

United States Youth Soccer Association The United States Youth Soccer Association (US Youth Soccer, abbreviated USYS) is the largest youth affiliate and member of the United States Soccer Federation, the governing body for soccer in the United States. US Youth Soccer includes 54 S ...

club Miami Rush Kendall SC announced Dieke as a U19 girls coach.

Playing style

Team GB coach

Hope Powell Hope Patricia Powell (born 8 December 1966) is an English football coach and former player who is the Women's Technical Director at Birmingham City. As a player, Powell won 72 caps for England, mainly as an attacking midfielder, scoring 17 goal ...

said of Dieke: "Ife's a great defender one-v-one. She probably prefers a centre-half role but can play anywhere along the back." Writing in '' The Herald'' in 2017, sports journalist Alan Campbell described Dieke as: " quick and tactically astute central defender".

Personal life

Dieke is often referred to by the

hypocorism A hypocorism ( or ; from Ancient Greek ; sometimes also ''hypocoristic''), or pet name, is a name used to show affection for a person. It may be a diminutive form of a person's name, such as ''Izzy'' for Isabel or ''Bob (given name), Bob'' fo ...

"Ife" (or "Iffy"). She can speak the

Igbo language Igbo ( , ; Standard Igbo: ''Ásụ̀sụ́ Ìgbò'' ) is the principal native language cluster of the Igbo people, an ethnicity in the Southeastern part of Nigeria. Igbo languages are spoken by a total of 31 million people. The number of Igbo ...

References

External links

* * * *
Profile
at

Swedish Football Association The Swedish Football Association (, SvFF) is the governing and body of football in Sweden. It organises the football leagues – Allsvenskan for men and for women – and the men's and women's national teams. It is based in Solna and is a ...

(SvFF) {{DEFAULTSORT:Dieke, Ifeoma 1981 births Living people Black British sportswomen Scottish women's footballers Scotland women's international footballers Women's United Soccer Association players FIU Panthers women's soccer players Atlanta Beat (WUSA) players Chicago Red Stars players Boston Breakers players American emigrants to Scotland African-American soccer players American sportspeople of Nigerian descent British people of Nigerian descent Scottish people of Nigerian descent Footballers at the 2012 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers for Great Britain Sportspeople from Amherst, Massachusetts Sportspeople from Cumbernauld Kristianstads DFF players Damallsvenskan players Vittsjö GIK players QBIK players FIFA Women's Century Club IFK Kalmar players Women's association football defenders Expatriate women's footballers in Sweden Expatriate women's footballers in Cyprus Apollon Ladies F.C. players Scottish expatriate women's footballers American expatriate sportspeople in Sweden American expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus Footballers from North Lanarkshire American women's soccer players Sportspeople of Nigerian descent 21st-century African-American women 20th-century African-American women Women's Professional Soccer players UEFA Women's Euro 2017 players Scottish expatriate sportspeople in Sweden Scottish expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus American expatriate women's soccer players Scottish football coaches 21st-century American sportswomen Scottish Olympic competitors 21st-century Scottish sportswomen