Nicole Payne has joined Paris Saint-Germain’s women’s team on a three-year contract.
Payne, 22, is the younger sister of Toni Payne who is a member of the Super Falcons squad that will compete at this year’s FIFA women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
“Paris Saint-Germain is pleased to announce the arrival of Nicole Payne,” PSG announced on their Twitter handle on Thursday.
“The Nigerian international defender joins Les Rouge et Bleu until June 2026.”
Payne was a member of the Super Falcons squad that finished fourth at the 2022 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco.
She made her senior debut for Nigeria on 10 June 2021 as a 90th-minute substitution in a 1-0 friendly loss to Jamaica.
Born in Birmingham (Alabama, USA), after playing for Concorde Fire, a club based in Atlanta, Payne joined the University of West Virginia in 2019 and played three seasons with the “Montaineers” (53 matches, four goals).
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In 2022, she continued her career and her studies in psychology at the University of Southern California.
She participated in all the matches during the season, accumulating a total of 16 games and three goals.
Also, she featured for USA at U15, U16, U17 and U18 levels before being called up to the Super Falcons in 2021 and has two caps.
7 Comments
Ehn Henh!
I wondered what had happened to her…why is she not in the current Falcons ogbeni Waldrum?
You will get an answer after the World Cup. Just be a little patient. We are so focused on doing well at the world cup.
Fair enough – I am sure that if she continues putting in good performances, now that she is in Europe, she will be in the team in no time.
Waldrum has been accused in some quarters of ‘flooding’ the team with American born players.
Some of the contentious additions to the squad are Ifeoma Onumonu and Yewande Balogun. The latter is not popular among a large body of Super Falcons fans whilst the NFF prefer a younger goalkeeper to Yewande. The Glass House wanted Waldrum to groom another Nnadozie as all the other current 2 goalkeepers are in their 30s.
Waldrum needed to be tactful. In addition to the aforementioned players, he also introduced Alozie, Echegini (London born American), Okoronkwo (Nigeria born American) in addition to Toni Payne that he inherited: making it 5 American-Nigerians in the squad. Add Plumptre then you have 6 dual nationalities.
If I am not mistaken, Nigeria’s squad to the last world cup had no dual nationality players.
So I think Nicole Payne may have missed out on this occasion to pacify some potentially disgruntled stakeholders.
All these are speculations as I may be totally wrong.
In fairness, Nicole Payne has been a bit-part player under Waldrum. She hadn’t particularly cemented a place in the team like her sister, Onumonu, Alozie, Plumptre or Okoronkwo.
Nicole is one for the future in my books. Although she often played in defence, it will not surprise me if she charms her way into the midfield or the flanks of the Super Falcons in seasons to come. In my mind’s eye, I see her taking the place of Ordega in the wings of the team.
Well done to Nicole on her transfer to PSG. She will be an asset to the club. The video below clearly highlight the threat she poses as an attacking force of nature.
https://youtu.be/pmM8MIBhKZI
Nicole Payne looks good as a midfielder in this video.
She was very poor at the women Afcon probably because of her young age unlike her sister who was everywhere in that Afcon..
She deserves not to be at this world cup based on performances in the past, as we have better players in her position in imuran..
She is one for the future
Thanks for putting that video up – I really knew next to nothing about her and my one impression of her was the time (as I have already variously mentioned) when she represented Nigeria in the same team as her sister and she made an immediate impact on me because of her “steady eddie” reliability and a solidness about her, much like her sister in fact.
Also thanks for your thoughts on why she is not currently in the team – I know that you are only speculating as you pointed out but fair play to you, it sort of makes sense – the senseless thing is the fact that sort of thing goes on in Nigeria, where some supposed “stakeholders” will impose their will on team selection – I mean who really cares what some “stakeholder” thinks or wants when it comes down to selecting the best legs to represent a nation? They can even be 11 British/Canadian/French Americans for all I care, as long as they genuinely qualify to represent us and are the actual best legs we have then no “stakeholder’s” opinion counts – Who are these stakeholders self?? Do they own Nigeria? or speak for the countless millions who are the citizens of Nigeria?… Mehn only in Nigeria I tell you – there’s too much BS and unnecessary, counter productive interference all borne out of personal pride, arrogance and greedy selfishness – Honestly, only God can save that country.
Anyway, thanks again bro…bless up!
@deo your analysis is always top notch.Kudos