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When Asisat Oshoala was young, she didn’t even know professional women’s football teams existed. She couldn’t join a club team or academy. Now, she is one of Africa’s most decorated female footballers. 

Hailing from Lagos, Nigeria, Oshoala has won multiple league titles and is a six-time Confederation of African Football (CAF) player of the year.

She now plays for Al-Hilal in the Saudi Women’s Football League. 

What makes Oshoala such an inspiring leader is that she is giving back to marginalized girls in Nigeria and across Africa through her foundation, the Asisat Oshoala Academy.

“I decided to set up an academy because of the hardships I went through,” said Oshoala in an interview with the BBC.

At the Academy, coaches train girls in football and teach leadership as well as vocational skills in things such as CPR, sewing and digital literacy. 

The latter directly tackles the internet usage gap for sub-Saharan Africans who live in areas with internet but do not know how to connect to it. 

By combining education, sports development and community outreach campaigns, Oshoala empowers young girls to achieve their potential and dream big through a holistic approach. 

“We are born leaders, we are born winners and whatever we do is just extras,” said Oshoala in an interview with CAF TV. 

Oshoala has supported environmental awareness and waste reduction campaigns in Nigeria. She also leveraged her athletic fame to advocate for climate adaptation ahead of COP30 as part of the #Adapt2Win campaign led by the social impact organization WRTHY.

^{Photo by Bryan Berlin, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.}