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Asisat Oshoala, Nigerian and African footballer of the year, is the first winner of the BBC Women’s Footballer of the Year Award defeating four other contestants

ASISAT Oshoala, Nigerian and Liverpool football player has been named as the BBC Women’s Footballer of the Year. Oshoala is the first player to win the new award from the BBC World Service, voted for by football fans across the world. The 20-year-old Nigerian beat Spain’s Veronica Boquete, Nadine Kessler of Germany, Scot Kim Little of Scotland and Brazilian Marta to the honour.

“I would like to say thank you to the BBC, to my fans around the world and to everyone who voted,” she said.

Oshoala, who was the youngest player to be shortlisted, was the leading scorer at the Under-20s World Cup in Canada last summer and was voted the tournament’s best player. She is the current African best player.

According to analysts, Oshoala’s performances led Nigeria to the final, where the country was narrowly beaten by Germany. The Nigerian striker was also a major influence in Falcons, Nigeria senior team that won the African Women’s Championship in October, last year.

Oshoala said the award was a big lift for Nigeria before the Women’s World Cup, which begins June 6. “It’s a really good thing for us as a team because we now know that we have something great and now we want to go at the trophy,” she said. “We can do it, we did it in 2014 we can also do it this year as well.

“There is going to be a lot of motivation for women’s football in Nigeria now because of this award because there are a lot of fans out there,” she said.

—  May 26, 2015 @ 18:15 GMT

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