How Asisat Oshoala silenced critics of her China move

By
Toby Prince
-
Asisat Oshoala Super Falcons
Oshoala

When Asisat Oshoala moved to China early last year, the general notion was that the 23-year-old’s career had reached a standstill.

Prior to her switch to Dalian Quanjian, the pacy forward was heralded as the biggest prospect from the mother continent and rightly so.

She had swept the Africa Player of the Year award twice in three years and picked up the inaugural BBC Women’s award too.

She similarly stunned for her club side, Liverpool, hitting three goals in just nine games.

Her form, however, dwindled at Arsenal and the move to Quanjian was expected to be the nail in the coffin of her career.

But remarkably, the Nigerian has proved her doubters wrong in the Asian nation.

Here are three ways she has done that.

  1. Chinese league top scorer

After ditching the Emirates where she struck just twice, Oshoala was somewhat short of confidence. However, the criticism was enough motivation for the 23-year-old who hit 12 goals in the league. It is the first time she reached double figures and also her maiden top scorer’s honours since departing Nigeria.

  1. League and cup double champion

Oshoala’s exploits in the final third were pivotal in her club’s cruise to win the Chinese Women’s Super League and Cup. It was her first brace of titles since Rivers Angels in 2014. The closest she came was the FA Cup at Arsenal in 2016.

    1. Third CAF player of the year award

Winning the CAF Africa Women’s Player of the Year award isn’t completely strange to Oshoala, but the manner in which she picked up the accolade on Thursday caused a stir. Oshoala beat Cameroonian Gabrielle Aboudi Onguene and Christina Kgatlana of South Africa to the top prize. It caps an improbable, yet torturing year for the forward. “When I left Arsenal a lot of people said ‘your career is going to be gone.’ But I told myself ‘I can do this.’ And here we are today,” she revealed.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR