Asisat Oshoala enters history books after Marta awards nomination

By Oyediji Oluwaseun Babatunde

Nigeria forward, Asisat Oshoala entered the history books after her nomination for the FIFA Marta Awards this week.

She became the first African women’s player to be nominated for the award named after Brazil legend, Marta.

Oshoala scored an acrobatic goal for former club, FC Barcelona against SL Benfica in the group stage of last season’s UEFA Women’s Champions League as the goal also won the best goal of the competition.

This year, FIFA introduced a new award to honour her legendary achievements – the best goal scored in women’s football will receive the ‘Marta Award’.

Previously the best goals in football either from men or women footballers got nominations for the Puskas Award but with the recent development, the men’s award is the Puskas Award while the women will jostle for the FIFA Marta Award.

The award affords women footballers the opportunity to get accolades for their efforts and not compete with their male folks for the best goals scored in a year.

For Africa, women’s footballers had previously been nominated for the Puskas Award without breakthroughs for their superb and scintillating goals.

They include Ajara Nchout Njoya (2019) and Sandra Owusu-Ansah (2021) are previous nominees for the Puskas Award.

Oshoala with this nomination puts herself in the annals of women’s football in Africa during an illustrious career that includes winning the CAF Women’s Player of the year award for a record six times and twice winning the UEFA Women’s Champions League title.