Nigeria have produced some of the continent’s greatest women's footballers, but one has stood above all in the last decade and a half: Asisat Oshoala.
Oshoala first burst onto the scene as a scrawny teenager when she made her debut for Nigerian Women Football League (NWFL) side Robo Queens in 2009 and she hasn’t looked back ever since.
While she spent four years at Robo Queens and a further two at NWFL rivals Rivers Angels, Oshoala’s resumé is currently decorated with some of the best clubs in the world.
Currently 29, the Nigeria international has lined up for English clubs Liverpool Ladies and Arsenal Women, Chinese side Dalian Quanjian, Spanish giants FC Barcelona Femeni and is currently on the books of National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) side Bay FC.
Asisat Oshoala stats
In a professional career that has spanned almost 15 years, Oshoala has won everything, including a record six African Women’s Footballer of the Year awards and three UEFA Women’s Champions League titles.
She also boasts a sterling record at the youth level where she helped Nigeria secure a runners-up finish at the FIFA U20 Women's World Cup 2014, in addition to being adjudged as the player of the tournament and winning the Golden Boot after scoring seven goals in six matches.
Although not many envisaged the forward attaining such lofty achievements when she first started, Oshoala has made an impression at every club she has played for. While at Rivers Angels, she won the Nigerian top-flight title and two league cups.
Oshoala’s impressive performances in the U20 World Cup earned her a move to Liverpool, making her the first African to play in the Women’s Super League. The Nigerian spent just a year with the Reds, in which she missed two months of action due to a knee injury, which restricted her to just three goals in nine matches.
A move to Arsenal sparked huge fanfare back home but Oshoala spent just a year with the Gunners too and had a return of just two goals in 13 appearances before securing a transfer to China. The Ikorodu-born footballer was, however, part of the Arsenal side that won the Women’s FA Cup in 2016 and went on to also win the Chinese Women's Super League in each of the two seasons she spent at Dalian Quanjian.
She also emerged as the top scorer in her debut season in the Chinese league, where she scored 12 goals, while also helping the club to lift the Super Cup after scoring four goals in the competition. Oshoala’s next stop was Barcelona, where she made her biggest impact and won everything with the Spanish club.
She departed Spain in February 2024 having played 162 matches and scored 117 goals for Barcelona, while also winning five league titles, four Copa de la Reina, four Supercopa de Espana Femenina, one Copa Cataluyna and three Champions League titles.
As of the time of writing this article, Oshoala has contributed three goals and an assist in 15 matches for her current club Bay FC in the NWSL. For Nigeria, Oshoala is currently the country’s second all-time top scorer with 37 goals and remains a long way from matching Perpetual Nkwocha’s 80 goals for the Super Falcons.
Asisat Oshoala’s Ballon d'Or record
Oshoala’s outstanding displays at Barcelona gave her talent the needed push to be recognised finally by a larger audience. Having contributed immensely to the Catalan club’s dominance in Spain and Europe, the Nigerian striker became the first African woman to be nominated for the Ballon d’Or in 2022.
She was shortlisted for the prestigious individual award alongside 19 others and, while the prize was ultimately won by Oshoala’s Barcelona teammate and captain Alexia Putellas, she finished in a respectable 16th position.
Oshoala bagged a second successive Ballon d’Or nomination in 2023 after ending the season with 21 goals in the league and five more in the Champions League as Barcelona won both competitions.
She was also part of the Nigeria side that reached the knockout stage of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, where they were eliminated by England on penalties.
She subsequently finished 20th in the Ballon d’Or ranking, with another club teammate of hers, Aitana Bonmati, winning the ultimate.
How many goals has Asisat Oshoala scored this season?
Asisat Oshoala has scored three goals so far this season, with her goals coming against Racing Louisville and San Diego Wave.
Since moving to America in February 2024, the 29-year-old has been involved in 15 matches for Bay FC in the NWSL – starting 14 times and coming on as a substitute once.
How many Champions Leagues have Asisat Oshoala won?
Asisat Oshoala has won the UEFA Women’s Champions League three times and has a great record in the competition. She won all her continental titles at Barcelona as a key player in the Spanish side’s most dominant era.
In 2019, she became the first African to score in the final when PSG defeated Barcelona 4-1 to lift the trophy. The Nigeria international’s first Champions League title, however, came in 2021 and she helped Barcelona to win two more in 2023 and 2024 after conquering Europe in back-to-back campaigns.
Asisat Oshoala's total career goals
The exact number of goals Oshoala scored during her time in Nigeria’s women’s top flight isn’t certain due to conflicting data from unverified sources, but she’s developed into a goal machine since moving to Europe.
While Asisat Oshoala’s goals tallies for Robo Queens and Rivers Queens are iffy, she has scored a whopping 188 goals at both club and international levels since 2015, when she sealed a move abroad.
She scored a combined five goals in the Women’s Super League (three at Liverpool and two at Arsenal) and also found the back of the net 26 times in the two seasons she played for Dalian Quanjian in China (16 goals in all competitions in her first season and 10 in her sophomore campaign).
It was, however, at Barcelona that she unlocked her true prolificacy in front of goal, having scored 117 goals for the Spanish giants in the five years she spent there. Oshoala has yet to replicate her ruthlessness in front of goal at Bay FC, but she’s already scored three times for the American club this season.
Meanwhile, Oshoala has also been involved in 37 goals for Nigeria’s Super Falcons, which takes her overall tally to 188 goals in her senior career, excluding her uncertain goal record in the Nigerian Women's Football League.
