Page 17 - LionKing

played really well. But I was disappoint-
ed because I felt like we had had the opportunity of winning the trophy. We had scored a goal that was cancelled so it was very painful.’
After the world cup, Asisat signed with Liverpool in 2015 and moved to England.
‘When I first moved to England, I wasn’t concerned because I had lived alone
in Port Harcourt for two and half years. It wasn’t the first time I was leaving home.’
‘Liverpool is a team that is quite popular in Nigeria so everyone was excited for me. Even my dad was excited. My parents are my biggest supporters now. They attend all my programmes. My foundation pro- gramme too. They are involved in every- thing now,’ she says very proudly.
Asisat played in Liverpool for one season then played in Arsenal for another season. In 2017, she moved to China.
‘For me this is a journey. When you have great management around you, they guide you most times when it comes to taking decisions. You have to be careful with your career not to make the wrong moves. People didn’t think my going to China was a good move but it ended up being a good move.’
She played in China for 2 years until she moved to Barcelona on loan for 6 months in 2019.
‘As it was a loan, I had the opportunity to move back to China if I didn’t like playing in Barcelona. But I have scored a lot of goals here and gained more supporters. The club proposed that I stay longer than my 6 months and I signed on in Barcelona this year for 3 more years till 2022.’
Off the field, Asisat is keen on her work with her foundation. She has recently been fea- tured in the famous Nike Advert that went viral with images of young female football players and remembers her own begin- nings and how she had little support for the love of the game.
‘It’s a powerful video’ she says. The co-star of the video is a young girl called Kemi. ‘The first day I met Kemi she was so shy, she didn’t want to come close to me. They had called me to say I was her hero and she was always posting things about me on her platforms. Nike brought her to Spain to make the video. After I saw the finished product, I was crying because I had never had the chance to look up to someone and I imagined what this would mean for millions of kids around the world.’
She empathises with many young girls who
African Female Fooballer of the Year Asisat Oshoala sobs with her trophy during the African Footballer of the Year Awards ceremony at the International Conference Centre in Accra, on January 4, 2018.
“
Stay focused, work hard and people who never supported you will be proud of you tomorrow.
have dreams and don’t know where to begin to live their dreams. Asisat started a foundation to empower young girls.
‘Asissat Oshoala Foundation idea started when I moved to Arsenal. I started very small as a competition for young girls. With the club where I used to play - FC Robo.
I would organise a small competition with the girls whenever I was back home and then I expanded to some academy teams in Lagos State and started bringing my ideas out to people.’
Speaking on the inspiration for this initia- tive, Asisat says ‘when I signed with Arsenal I started getting a lot of messages and looking at how lucky I had been. I had opportunities. When I was at school I had a friend. My best friend actually. And we used to play football together. Her name
is also Asisat,’ she laughed. ‘But her par- ents didn’t like her playing football so she
stopped. She studied mass communica- tions at uni. My best friend got me thinking and made me feel that for this to have happened to her where her dreams were not realised, there must be a lot of other young girls going through the same expe- rience where their families are not sup- portive of them playing football. But as far as I am concerned, kids can make both education and sports happen. The talent is easier for me because I have it naturally. Some kids have to mix talent and educa- tion. Girls can go to school after practice or come to practice before school.’
‘I felt it was high time to start educating parents, give them advice and to help the kids. Some of the kids have to go to the market after practice so I bring them to the foundation and after school they prac- tice. We pay school fees for the kids and support the parents. This makes the par- ents more relaxed and open to their kids coming to practice after school instead of going to the market.’
Mostly using her personal funds, Asisat has built a foundation with close to 500 kids. ‘Sometimes, we get support from corpo- rate bodies too,’ she says.
On her plans for the foundation, Asisat says ‘I have a bigger picture. We have kids from the foundation who play under 17 at the national team. We also got a huge partnership with FC Barcelona where they take about 5 kids from our foundation to go to trials this year. I dream of having more girls playing football at a professional level. I don’t want their dreams killed as these conflicts can easily be resolved.’
But what is in the future for Asisat? ‘I don’t like to put pressure on myself. I like to take things one step at a time. I’d like to focus on my club. See what I can achieve for the team. That’s a goal for me. To help the team.’
I asked her what she would be doing if she were not playing football and she replies gleefully, ‘I love travelling. Sometimes I get a few days off and would like to visit differ- ent places. I love adventure.’
We end the interview with a message from Asisat to other young girls chasing their dreams, ‘stay focused, work hard and people who never supported you will be proud of you tomorrow.’
17
Image: PIUS UTOMI EKPEI/AFP/Getty Image