Asisat Oshoala:  A sterling record

LAST month, the sensational Super Falcons forward popularly called Super Zee by her teammates, Asisat Oshoala, won a record-setting African Women’s Player of the Year gong at the Confederation of African Football (CAF)Awards ceremony held in Rabat, Morocco. In setting this superlative record, the 27-year-old fended off competition from Ajara Njoya (Cameroon and Inter Milan) and Grace Chanda  (Zambia and BIIK Kazygurt). Oshoala, who had featured in back-to-back women’s Champions League finals before the night of glory in Rabat, is the first woman to rule African football a record five times and may be considered, until further notice, as African women’s football’s Greatest of All Time (Goat). The award is exhilarating, particularly as Oshoala was ruled out of this year’s AFCON tournament after suffering a collateral ligament strain during Nigeria’s 1-2 loss to South Africa in Rabat, and the Super Falcons eventually left the tournament with no medal after losing the third-place play-off to Zambia at the Stade Mohamed V in Casablanca following an own-goal by Chiamaka Nnadozie in the 25th minute.

It would really have been impossible for the Barcelona Femeni forward not to have notched up the top prize, having played a key role in the team’s quest, albeit aborted during the final game, to lift the women’s Champions League two times in a row. Although Barcelona eventually lost the prestigious title  1-3 to Olympique Lyonnais at the Juventus Stadium in Turin, Oshoala arguably had her best ever season during the 2021-22 campaign, playing a phenomenal role in the team’s treble charge, namely the Spanish Women’s Super Cup, Copa de la Reina and the Primera Division. Remarkably, missing a couple of matches following an injury did not stop Oshoala from emerging as the league’s joint-top scorer with a phenomenal 20 goals in 19 league appearances. The Brazilian Geyse Ferreira, who managed the same number of goals, had an eight-match advantage playing for Madrid CFF. Ruthless and clinical in front of goal, Oshoala scored a hat-trick against Real Betis and a brace against Real Sociedad, Valencia, Villarreal and Real Betis. In her only match in the Copa de la Reina, she scored against Real Madrid.

The CAF award is, of course, Nigeria’s specialty, having been previously won by Mercy Akide (2001), Perpetua Nkwocha (2004, 2005, 2010 & 2011) and Cynthia Uwak (2006 & 2007). Oshoala’s overtaking of Nkwocha, with whom held the CAF record as joint winner with four awards, is an exceptional feat. And it is not fortuitous. Playing for Rivers Angels, Oshoala won the Nigerian Women’s Championship (2014) and the Nigerian Women’s Cup (2013, 2014). In the colours of English side Arsenal, Oshoala won the FA Women’s Cup (2015–16), a feat she repeated in the colours of Dalian Quanjian F.C, winning the Chinese Women’s Super League in 2017 and 2018. With her current team, she won the Primera División (2019–20, 2020–21, 2021–22) and theUEFA Women’s Champions League ( 2020–21); the Supercopa de España Femenina (2019–20, 2021–22) and Copa de la Reina (2019–20, 2020–21). And in the green-white-green of Nigeria, she has won the African Women’s Championship three times (2014, 2016, 2018) and the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup runner-up medal in 2014. She has 29 goals to her name as a Super Falcons striker.

To be sure, her list of individual honours is massive. They include the BBC Women’s Footballer of the Year award (2015), Queen of The Pitch Award (2014), African Women’s Footballer of the Year (2014, 2016, 2017, 2019 and 2022), African Women’s Youth Player of the Year (2014), African Women’s Championship Golden Ball (2014), African Women’s Championship Golden Boot (2016), FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup Golden Boot (2014), FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup Golden Ball (2014), Primera División Top scorer (2021–22), Chinese Women’s Super League Top scorer: (2017), IFFHS CAF Best Woman Player of the Decade (2011–2020), IFFHS CAF Woman Team of the Decade (2011–2020) and Nigeria Women’s Most Valuable Player of the Season (2020).

In ruling African football five times in a row, Oshoala has confirmed her place as one of the greatest footballers on the planet. Time and again, she has risen through obstacles, including emotional and psychological challenges, to give of her very best to her team, whether at club or international level. She has validated our long-held view that the problem with Nigeria at the sporting level and indeed in every facet of life is not the lack of talents but the traditionally poor leadership with which the country has been afflicted for ages. Discovering her talents early in life, Oshoala has taken advantage of the facilities available abroad to hone her innate talents and become an unbeatable athlete. Remarkably, even with the qualms she may have about how football is run in the country, she has made massive contributions to societal growth through philanthropy and investments in youth football in Nigeria.

We celebrate Super Zee for her record fifth African Footballer of the Year gong and commend her courage, resilience, discipline and hard work to Nigeria’s young generation. And, what is more, we hope that she sets even greater records on and off the pitch in the years to come.

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