Izuchukwu OkosiWomen’s football in Nigeria have grown in leaps and bounds with the senior women’s national team, Super Falcons proving to be the most successful national teams on the continent in terms of medal rush
The nine-time African champions have great players that are taking the world by storm.
In this piece, Izuchukwu Okosi attempts to provide useful insights on which of the Falcons top the rich list despite the calls for equal pay globally for the men’s and women’s game.
To start with, women footballers are not adequately renumerated hence the outcry from football star players over the globe.
In Nigeria, there has been agitations for an equal pay as well as the national team had had running battles with the Nigeria Football Federation.
1. Mitchelle Alozie
Topping our list is Houston Dash’s Mitchelle Alozie who also has a career outside of football.
Alozie, who was part of Nigeria’s 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand and made the headlines after she was stampled upon by Chelsea Women’s Lauren James in the round of 16 defeat aside football has a career in the medical industry.
The beautiful forward cum defender is a cancer research technician at the Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, Texas.
The Nigerian women’s team as well as the other participating teams at the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup were (supposed to be) paid a guaranteed sum of $30,000 by the Federation of International Football Association (FIFA) for being with their teams at the group stage of the tournament.
However, Alozie, according to information garnered from Cancer Researcher Salary, Alozie could be making the sum of $66,552 as salary on the average as of September 25, 2023 which is N51,245,705.52 Nigerian Naira.
The average Cancer Research Technician in the US makes $43,875 from findings scooped on Comparably.com.
It went to further to explain that the average bonus for a Cancer Research Technician is $563 which represents 1% of their salary.
2. Asisat Oshoala
The weekly wage/salary of Barcelona Femine and Super Falcons star Asisat Oshoala is not known but she has played for a number of good teams in Europe like Liverpool and Arsenal Women teams.
‘Superzee’ also earns good amount of money through endorsement deals. She has featured in a number of television commercials for top Nigerian and African brands with her fees running into millions of Nigerian naira.
3. Yewande Balogun
Zainab Yewande is another Super Falcons player who has made some income from other career paths.
She’s is a first generation Nigerian American who has made decent living for herself.
The 34-year-old goalkeeper born in the USA currently plays for French side AS Saint-Étienne. But she was also an assistant coach for US team.
As a proof of her business acumen, Balogun explored positions in finance, logistics and mortgage financing.
Then in 2014, she enrolled once again at Maryland Smith – this time in the Part-Time MBA program (now the Flex MBA program).
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
In October 2004, Okosi joined Complete Communications Limited, publishers of Complete Sports newspaper and Complete Football magazine as a reporter and later script writer for the Complete Sports studio.
He worked there for 13 years until October 2017.
Okosi also worked various times as Correspondent, Content creator and Editor at Sports Market International Magazine, Opera News, All Nigeria Soccer Media and Iconic Media Watch.
He also undertook freelance writing gigs for some local and international organizations.
Okosi is a member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Association of Movie Producers (AMP), Association of Voiceover Artistes of Nigeria (AVOA), Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) and Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
He has been part of cast in some Nollywood movies and radio dramas including Blood Money 2, Scores To Settle, Dead End 2, Another Campus Tale and Battle Line.
Aside mainstream media and the entertainment industry, he has interests in scouting/unearthing of talents in the sports and creative sectors, exports business and property development.
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