Taif, 2 September 2026. With 72 minutes gone in the Saudi Women's Super Cup semi-final at King Fahd Sports City Stadium, Asisat Oshoala broke clear on a counter and finished past the Al Ittihad goalkeeper to give Al Hilal a 2-1 win. Eleven years after her first Women's World Cup goal, the Ikorodu-born striker is still deciding matches.
Here is her story, updated for October 2026.
| Asisat Oshoala | At a glance |
|---|---|
| Full name | Asisat Lamina Oshoala |
| Born | 9 October 1994, Ikorodu, Lagos State |
| Age | 32 |
| Position | Striker |
| Current club | Al Hilal, Saudi Arabia, since September 2025 |
| Super Falcons | Still available, not retired; excused from the October 2026 Olympic qualifier against Comoros |
| WAFCON titles | Four: 2014, 2016, 2018, 2024 |
| CAF Women's Player of the Year | Six times, a record: 2014, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2022, 2023 |
From Ikorodu to Barcelona
Her parents did not want a footballer. Born into a Muslim family in Ikorodu, she played anyway, starting at FC Robo in Lagos in 2009 and moving to Rivers Angels in 2013. The breakthrough came in Canada in 2014: top scorer at the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup with seven goals, plus the Golden Ball and the Golden Boot, and in September of that year President Goodluck Jonathan made her a Member of the Order of the Niger. Europe followed. She joined Liverpool in 2015 as the first African player in England's Women's Super League and won the BBC Women's Footballer of the Year award, then moved to Arsenal and on to Dalian Quanjian in China.
Barcelona made her a global name. She scored their only goal in the 2019 Champions League final against Lyon. In 2021 she became the first African woman to win the competition, and in 2021/22 she won the Pichichi trophy with 20 league goals. By 2024 she owned three winner's medals, another African first. We looked back at that era in five things she achieved before leaving Barcelona.
Bay FC and Al Hilal
On 1 February 2024 she signed for Bay FC before the NWSL club's first season. She scored the franchise's first goal on 17 March 2024 against Angel City and ended the year with a team-high seven goals.
Two seasons in California were enough. On 2 September 2025 she joined Al Hilal on a two-year deal.
It has worked. Her hat-trick in a 5-1 Saudi Women's Cup semi-final win over Qadsiah in Riyadh in May 2026 took her to 17 goals and six assists in all competitions, by Pulse Sports' count. Al Nassr won the final 3-2 after extra time.
No club has published her wages. Our Asisat Oshoala salary guide sets out what is on record.
Super Falcons: a title, then a hard year
July 2025 brought a fourth continental crown. Nigeria came from behind to beat hosts Morocco 3-2 in Rabat in the 2024 WAFCON final for a record 10th title, even if her place in the starting line-up had shrunk. Asked about retirement talk, she laughed it off.
“I'm still here. I'm still playing. I'm still doing my job,” she told reporters after the final.
The 2026 WAFCON, again in Morocco, went badly. A 3-2 opening defeat to debutants Malawi left Oshoala pleading for patience, telling reporters “the World Cup ticket is at stake”. She then scored in the eighth minute of a 1-0 win over Zambia on 1 August and again in a 6-2 rout of Egypt. Cameroon ended the run 1-0 in the quarter-finals.
Then Casablanca. A 2-1 play-off defeat to South Africa on 13 August meant, as ThisDay noted, that the Falcons will miss a Women's World Cup for the first time since 1991.
So where does that leave her? She has not retired. In October 2026 she asked to be excused from the two-legged Los Angeles 2028 Olympic qualifier against Comoros at Remo Stars Stadium, and no reason was given publicly.
Our view: a new Olympic cycle is starting and younger forwards are pushing through, so the NFF owes her a clear conversation about her role rather than another round of rumours.
Records and awards
The numbers are hard to argue with. In Marrakech on 11 December 2023 she won a sixth CAF African Women's Player of the Year award, extending her own record, as we reported on the night.
Three World Cups, three goals: 2015, 2019 and 2023, an African first. In 2022 she became the first African woman nominated for the Ballon d'Or Feminin.
Her foundation, launched in 2019, runs the annual Football4girls tournament in Lagos.
Does Asisat Oshoala have a daughter?
Many Nigerians ask. The honest answer is short. In February 2019 blogs and forums circulated a photo from her social media of a young girl described as her daughter. That is the only basis for the story.
Oshoala has never discussed a child in an interview and has never given a name, an age or a father, so none of those details are public. We will not guess beyond what she has chosen to share. Contemporary reports are gathered in our page on Asisat Oshoala's daughter.
This article was most recently revised and updated 56 seconds ago
Asisat Oshoala is a great and fantastic lady indeed and worthy of emulation.
She’s is virtuous and an ideal lady to be reckoned with. If or when I have my way to see her physically and frontally, it will be a great delight and joy for me to meet an icon, great and legend footballer.
She made Nigerian and the Nigerians proud internationally. She’s is the conscience of the nation. I’m really happy for her, she’s done tremendously well and that’s a remarkable development
Even just to contact her, have a chat, talk with her and take a photograph with her is a great pleasure and blessing for me.
I so much cherish her most, her sweet and golden name in my life. She Worth’s the joy and the love of my heart and my life forever.
Asisat Osuala is a virtuous woman of destiny, she’s disciplined and respectable.
She’s Beautiful, Pretty, Lovely, attractive and irresistible like a Charming Queen from the source.
I so much like and love her and cherish her most always in my life.
No one but her ???
♥️With Love and passion♥️
From,
The Humanist / Human Face
Majeck Lordfemi Majekodunmi
+234 7033446655 ; +234 8029555222
[email protected]