Alhaji Oshoala, the father of Super Falcons of Nigeria and FC Barcelona forward, Asisat Oshoala, has revealed that he tried to stop her from being a footballer because he wanted her to get a formal education.
Mr Oshoala said he didn’t see a bright future in the sport for his daughter, who has gone on to become the most successful Nigerian footballer in terms of club and individual honours.
“We didn’t see a bright future for her in football, and I planned to make sure all my children attained a high level of education and do better than us parents,” he told the BBC.
Despite her father’s resistance to her desire to become a footballer, Asisat Oshoala pushed on until she landed her first professional contract at a Nigerian local Women’s club, Robo, in 2009.
From there, Asisat joined Rivers United in 2013, where she won the 2014 Nigerian Women’s Championship. From there, she ventured into mainstream Europe when she joined Liverpool in 2015.
About a year after, she joined Arsenal in 2016 but couldn’t establish herself as she had to fly to China, where she joined Dalian Quanjian in 2017.
It was in China that the 28-year-old Nigerian forward fully unleashed her football potential to the extent that FC Barcelona noticed how good she is and signed her first on loan in 2019 and then permanently a few months after.
Since 2019, Asisat Oshoala has won three Primera División, two UEFA Women’s Champions League, three Supercopa de España Femenina, and three Copa de la Reina.
Asisat, who made her international debut in 2013, has helped the Super Falcons of Nigeria to win three African Women’s Championships, and she has won five African Women’s Footballer of the Year awards for herself, amongst other individual honours.
Asisat Oshoala is currently leading the Super Falcons of Nigeria in the 2023 Women’s World Cup in New Zealand and Australia, where she has scored a goal in three games to become the first African woman to score in three different World Cup editions.
Also, Asisat is the first and only African woman player to be nominated for the prestigious Ballon d’Or.
When she scored against the 2023 Women’s World Cup co-hosts Australia to help Nigeria win 3-2 in a group stage game, Asisat Oshoala celebrated so wildly that she had to remove her jersey, a celebration that sparked mixed reactions across Nigeria.
She even came on social media to tell the world that her father was not happy with her for such a celebration and some concerned Nigerians used social media to apologize to her father on her behalf.
While reacting to the incident via the BBC, Asisat Oshoala’s Father said, “It was an outpouring of emotions and it was not intentional. I am proud of my daughter”.
Asisat Oshoala is expected to step up for the Super Falcons of Nigeria at 8:30 a.m. on Monday, August 7, when the Nigerian team faces the Lionesses of England in the round of 16 stage of the 2023 Women’s World Cup at Suncorp Stadium in Milton, Australia.
