Becoming a lawyer, being a defensive midfielder – Inside Asisat Oshoala’s iconic story

Asisat Oshoala is arguably Nigeria’s greatest ever female footballer.

The Barcelona forward is inarguably the female football player with the farthest global reach ever.

Having represented a number of European teams including Arsenal Ladies, Liverpool Ladies and now Barcelona, the attacker is dubbed an icon of the game.

In a documentary, ‘Icons’ conducted by FIFA and showing on FIFA + TV , Oshoala revealed a number of previously unknown details about her life, career and parents.

 

From Law To Football

The Barcelona Femeni forward said her parents had always wanted her to become a lawyer and she wanted it too. They initially played hard ball over her choice of football and punished her severally for taking to the game.

”I never had the intention to play football professionally, I wanted to be a lawyer,” she narrated.

The attacker revealed how she met the coach who changed her life, FC Robo coach and owner, Emmanuel Osahon Orobosa.

Coach Osahon also revealed that she met Oshoala as a young player and the first thing he observed was her height. He said he trained her on how to be more athletic as she had great strides and also taught her to use her height to great advantage in aerial situations.

 

”You are not a defensive midfielder, tell them”

The coach narrated that Oshoala was initially used as a defensive midfielder by the Super Falcons due to her strength and power but he ‘blasted’ her and told her to inform her coaches that she’s an attacker.

When Nigeria played at the 2014 U-20 World Cup, the attacker was allowed to play in the frontline and she won the Golden Ball and Golden Boot awards at the tournament.

Oshoala said the pain of the loss of the night didn’t make her realize what she had achieved at the time.

”My father was very proud. His friends started to call him Oshoala. They called him by his first name before but they began to call him Oshoala after that tournament,”

She said it was after the U-20 World Cup her parents agreed to allow her play football professionally.

 

Move to Liverpool and Language Barrier 

“I had series of offers on the table from France, England, from different countries. My dad said it’s my first time leaving Nigeria to Europe to work so you have to think about language barrier. That was why I chose England.

“Moving to Europe made me switch a lot of things. It moulded me to become a proper professional player,” she said.

The four-time African footballer of the year is a paragon of culture for African players abroad.

Oshoala also narrated her love for Lagos and how she hopes to encourage more young children to pursue their path.