Super Falcons striker, Asisat Oshoala, attested that Africa can win the world cup while showing appreciation to coaches and players she has played with over the course of her career after claiming a record sixth-extending CAF African Women’s Player of the Year award in Marrakech, Morocco on Monday.
Oshoala has been a phenomenal player, winning the award in 2014, 2016, 2017, 2019, and 2022, and this time, the 29-year-old saw off the contest of South African Thembi Kgatlana and Zambian Barbara Banda to claim the crown.
In her appreciation speech after receiving her title, Oshoala thanked all who had been part of her career especially her coaches and her teammates.“I would love to use this opportunity to thank everyone who has been part of my journey from grassroots football to national level to club side because without you, my coaches, my teammates, there would be no me,” she said.
She encouraged the African teams federations to cooperate in developing football on the continent to produce a World Cup-winning African team saying, “Football is a team game and I would urge all the federations in Africa to please come together, let’s work together and build our continent, let’s make it the best in the world, it is very possible.
“It happened in the last World Cup, the men’s World Cup, we shocked the world, and at the last World Cup in Australia, all the national teams that represented Africa, we made history and I believe before the next World Cup, we can get better, and I believe we can do better, and we can win it for sure.
At the end of the day, if we don’t support ourselves, nobody will come down to Africa, nobody will come to this continent to support. We have to work together as a team because football is a team sport, let us start at home and go to the world and conquer it.”