Page 15 - LionKing

She is very soft spoken. Well-mannered and so much more mature than one would expect a 24-year-old to be. Asisat was born on October 9, 1995 and grew up with her mum and sibling in Lagos Island in Nigeria.
‘It was a difficult life you know, because you couldn’t do what you wanted to do. Even when I felt like doing something dif- ferent, I was compelled to go with what- ever I was told to do,’ she started as she opened up to talk about her childhood.
Asisat grew up in a polygamous home but her parents were very close and raised her together. ‘I could go to my parents and talk to them about any problems I had. They have both always been in my life’ she said.
‘Both my parents had said no to football initially, but my grandma was my best friend. She lived in Oke Arin, very close to us. She was one of the people that sup- ported me to play football. It really hurts that she isn’t alive to see my successes,’ she said rather pensively.
‘I used to play on the Lagos marina under the bridge on Sundays because my mum was would always send me to buy hot bread in the morning. I would play a bit of football before going back home and give an excuse as to why it took me so long to buy the bread’
Asisat Oshoala took school seriously. The reason her parents wanted her to con- centrate on her education. ‘I wanted to be a lawyer. That was my dream. I never dreamed of playing professionally until after high school and I had gotten admis- sion into the Lagos state University (LASU).
She didn’t go for the opportunity to study at LASU however, because she received an offer to move to Port Harcourt to go and play at a professional club whilst she was playing for FC Robo in Lagos.
‘I was recruited into the Rivers Angels in Port Harcourt. And at that point I knew this was going to be my career. It was the turn- ing point really. I had been playing for the FC Robo in Lagos and when I got the offer to move to the Rivers Angles, I actually considered transferring to University of Port Harcourt as I had begun to develop an interest in playing football professionally.’
Lady luck was smiling on the young teenager. The coach at her club in Port Harcourt, Mr. Edwin Okon, was the coach of the Nigerian national team.
Asisat tried out for the under 20s and made it to the first world cup in 2014.
‘It was such a great feeling. That was when everything changed. My orientation changed about school and I just wanted to do football. I moved in with the team. We had a camp. It was the first time I had lived apart from my parents and it was different but I liked it because my parents were strict,’ she chuckled.
She played as a striker in the FIFA world cup under 20s, everything changed. She won the award of top scorer and best player at the tournament as Nigeria came second and lost to Germany.
‘I was a little bit happy because I had
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I used to play on the Lagos marina under the bridge on Sundays because my mum was would always send me to buy hot bread in the morning. I would play a bit of football before going back home and give an excuse as to why it took me so long to buy the bread”
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Image: Sunday Balogun