Asisat Oshoala has been ranked as number 33 on the Guardian’s list of 100 best female footballers of 2020. She and Malawian star, Tabitha Chawinga are the sole Africans on the list. Oshoala, who was at number 86 on the 2018 list and number 55 on the 2019 list, moved up 22 places on this year’s list.
In contrast, Tabitha Chawinga, who was the very best ranked African on the 2018 list at number 71, fell 24 places to number 95 on the 2019 list and has now fallen an extra 5 places to number 100 on this year’s list.
Pernille Harder of Chelsea and Denmark was listed because the best female player for 2020, while Vivianne Miedema of Arsenal and therefore the Netherlands was ranked second and Lucy Bronze of Manchester City and England was ranked third.
However, I even have reservations about this list. i feel that it had been supported reputation instead of form. Former World Best Player, Lieke Martens, was ranked above Asisat Oshoala, albeit she has had a nasty year by her standards. Martens was injured during the 2019 World Cup and it took a while for her to recover and find her form. She was often played out of position when she recovered, especially when Graham was injured and Martens was made to hide for her. Meanwhile Oshoala had an excellent year and finished because the second highest scorer within the league. Oshoala was nominated in UEFA’s team of the season while Martens wasn’t nominated.
Similarly, there are many other Africans that did better than Tabitha Chawinga this year. Barbra Banda was the highest scorer within the Chinese League and she or he fired Zambia to their first-ever Olympics. Temwa Chawinga (Tabitha’s sister) fired Wuhan to first Chinese title and Ajara Nchout was the highest scorer/winner of the Norwegian league.
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