Nigeria will on Wednesday, July 17, trade tackles with Canada's women national team in Seville, Spain, in the Super Falcons' final friendly match before heading to France for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
Reigning Olympic champions are coming off a fine 2-1 victory over Australia at the Marbella Football Center in San Pedro de Alcántara.
A certain Simi Awujo started that game, making her 18th appearance for Canada, and impressed before she was replaced in the second half.
If Canada's coach Beverly Priestman sticks to the same starting lineup against Nigeria on Wednesday, Awujo will likely take to the pitch with mixed feelings, as she could have been a Super Falcon had circumstances aligned differently.
Who is Simi Awujo?
Simisola Feyishayo Awujo was born on September 23, 2003, in Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States to Nigerian parents of Yoruba extraction – Dr. Akinwole Awujo a Medical Doctor, and Dr. Mrs. Shola Okuwa-Awujo a Pharmacist.
With her father holding American citizenship and her mother Canadian citizenship, Awujo set out in her early football life knowing she could play for any of these three countries.
The second child in her family, Simi was raised to combine her studies with sports, excelling in all.
An undergraduate at Southern California University with hopes of becoming a Paediatric Surgeon, Simi also won honours with the school's 4×100 and 4×400 relay teams before she settled for football.
Again, the youngster excelled and was selected to represent the United States U17 at a UEFA Women's Development Tournament in the Czech Republic in 2019.
However, Canada convinced her to dump the United States and in 2022 she was part of the country's team to the 2022 CONCACAF Women's U-20 Championship and the 2022 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup.
Simi, who would later study Computer Science and Business Administration, and Canada faced Nigeria in the group stage of that World Cup tournament in Costa Rica.
By the time the two teams met inside the Estadio Alejandro Morera Soto in Alajuela on August 18, Nigeria had already qualified for the quarterfinals following their victories over France and Korea Republic U20.
Canada already had their bags packed and ready to fly home as they had lost their two matches.
Still, Nigeria showed no mercy to Canada – Simi Awujo started the encounter wearing jersey number 13 – with the Falconets powering to a convincing 3-1, thanks in part to an Esther Onyenezide brace.
Canada know quality when they see one and in September 2022, Simi made her debut for the Canucks.
https://twitter.com/CanadaSoccerEN/status/1565947447683301376
After winning the women's 2022 Canada Soccer Young Player of the Year, Simi then scored her first senior international goal on December 1, 2023, in a 5–0 victory in a friendly against Australia.
Still a firm lover of Nigerian jollof, a Nigerian food delicacy preferred by millions all over the world to Ghanaian Jollof, Simi brings energy, physical presence, and flavour to Canada's midfielder.
The 20-year-old will, on Wednesday, look to test how far she has come against Nigeria's Deborah Abiodun and Oluwatosin Demehin, who were in that victorious Falconets side and have now become a mainstay in the Super Falcons team.
In Marbella, Spain, however, 8th-ranked Canada will be favourites to overcome 36th-ranked Nigeria in a closed-door training match.
While Nigeria's Falconets have a 100 per cent win record against their Canadian U20 counterparts, the Canada senior team holds a better head-to-head record against the Super Falcons.
Nigeria have won one, lost two, and drawn three of their previous six games against Canada. Both teams played out a goalless draw in the group stage of last year's FIFA World Cup, with goalkeeper Chiamaka Nnadozie excellently stopping a second-half penalty from Christine Sinclair.
For Nigeria, this friendly is nothing but a buildup game to fine-tune the strategies they have worked on during their training campaign in Spain.
For Simi, though, it would mean more than that. It would be a chance to get her point of flesh from Nigeria and show she made the right choice playing for Canada, and not the birthplace of her beloved parents.
