Nigeria Striker, Oshoala win fifth African Women Player of the year

By Our Correspondent

Nigeria and Barcelona striker, Asisat Oshoala, Thursday, made history by becoming the first female player to win the African Women’s Player of the Year Award for a fifth record time after she was named the winner of the 2022 edition at the CAF Awards ceremony in Rabat.

With the award, Oshoala has overtaken another Nigerian professional, and former Captain of the Nigerian women football team, the Super Falcons, Perpetual Nwokocha, who claimed the accolade on four occasions.

Nwokocha is the current coach of Clemensnäs IF from Swedish Women's Football Division 2. She previously played for Swedish club Sunnanå SK.

The 27-year-old Oshoala picked the award ahead of her two contenders, Ajara Nchout Njoya of Cameroon and Inter Milan, and Zambia international Grace Chanda of BIIK Kazygurt.

The 2021-22 campaign was arguably the talisman's best yet as she played a key role in her Spanish side’s treble charge – the Spanish Women's Super Cup, Copa de la Reina and the Primera Division.

Although, she missed a couple of matches due to injury, that did not stop her from emerging as league joint-top scorer after netting 20 goals in 19 league appearances.

She share the award with Brazilian Geyse Ferreira, who managed the same number of goals in 27 appearances for Madrid CFF.

Impressively, she scored a hat-trick against Real Betis and a double versus Real Sociedad, Valencia, Villarreal, and Real Betis.

In the Copa de la Reina, she scored in her only appearance in the tournament against Real Madrid.

Her side could have won a quadruple, but Barcelona lost 3-1 to Olympique Lyonnais at the Juventus Stadium in Turin.

Internationally, she contributed little as she did not score a single goal for the Super Falcons in the period under review.

To make things worse, she was ruled out of Women’s Africa Cup of Nations 2022 with Nigeria through injury after suffering a medial collateral ligament strain in the West African’s 2-1 defeat to South Africa in Rabat.

Oshoala is the fourth Nigerian to land the women's version of the award, following in the footsteps of Mercy Akide (2001), Nkwocha (2004, 2005, 2010 & 2011) and Cynthia Uwak (2006 & 2007).