It is no longer news that Nigeria and Barcelona talisman Asisat Oshoala was named the 2022 African Women’s Player of the Year at the CAF Awards ceremony in Rabat on Thursday.
The 27-year-old picked the award ahead of Ajara Nchout Njoya (Cameroon and Inter Milan) and Zambia international Grace Chanda (Zambia and BIIK Kazygurt).
With this, she becomes the first African to win this prestigious for a record five times, overtaking another Nigerian, Perpetua Nkwocha who claimed the accolade on four occasions.
Hence, this article shall look at the Four Nigerians who has won the Female African Player Of The Year since it establishment.
MERCY IKIDE
A former Nigerian football player, who is the first woman in Africa to receive the female CAF Award. She started her footballing career with Gardens City Queens. However, after two years of playing for the Queens, and turning down the overtures of the rival Port Harcourt-based Larry’s Angels, Akide left Port Harcourt for Lagos to continue both education and soccer with Jegede Babes under the influence of Princess Bola Jegede.
Her two seasons of consistency with Jegede Babes, where she scored a total of 49 goals in two seasons, caught the attention of national coach Ismaila Mabo and Mercy was called to camp in 1994. But another rush of goals, 17 in the league and 9 in the Challenge Cup earned her a recall. Her international debut came soon after, a World Cup qualifier against Sierra Leone in Ibadan with Mercy playing as a winger. She marked it with two goals. She scored one more in the return leg to cement her place in the team. In 2001, she was named the first African Women Footballer of the Year, and was a 1999 and 2004 FIFA World All-Star.
She has played for Nigeria in three FIFA Women’s World Cups and also helped Nigeria’s Super Falcons to three African Women Championships (AWC) titles in 1998, 2000 and 2002. Hence, in 2005, she was named by FIFA as one of its 15 Ambassadors for Women Football.
PERPETUA IJEOMA NKWOCHA
Second on the list is Perpetua Nkwocha who is currently the coach of Clemensnäs IF from Swedish Women’s Football Division 2, she previously played for Swedish club Sunnanå SK. She was also a member and formerly the captain of the Nigeria women’s national football team.
With the Nigeria national team Nkwocha has participated in seven CAF Women’s Championship editions (2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2014), winning five of them (2002, 2004, 2006, 2010 and 2014). At the 2004 African Women’s Championship, she scored four goals in the final against Cameroon to help her country win the title. She also set a record by scoring nine overall goals during the tournament, and was named the best player of the tournament. Nkwocha was voted African Women’s Footballer of the Year in 2004, 2005, 2010 and 2011 by Confederation of African Football (CAF).
Nkwocha has also participated in four FIFA Women’s World Cup (2003, 2007, 2011 and 2015), as well as the Olympic tournaments of Sydney 2000, Athens 2004, and Beijing 2008.
CYNTHIA UWAK
Cynthia might not be a popular name but she is also a proud honouree of this CAF award. Uwak competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics and the 2007 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
She missed out on the squad for the 2010 African Women’s Championship in South Africa following an injury. She won the African Women Footballer of the Year in 2006 and 2007 respectively.
ASISAT LAMINA OSHOALA
Asisat Oshoala plays as a striker for Primera División club FC Barcelona Femení and the Nigerian women’s national team. She’s arguably regarded as the greatest African female footballers of all time and one of the best in the world. She is the most decorated African female footballer of all time, and a record five time African Women’s Footballer of the Year.
Oshoala was named as the best player at the 2014 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup and was the top goalscorer at the tournament with seven goals. She was also named best player and second top goalscorer with the Super Falcons team who won the 2014 African Women’s Championship. She also won the BBC Women’s Footballer of the Year 2015.
She has won the African Player of the year in 2014, 2016, 2017, 2019 and 2022.
