Nigeria and Liverpool forward Asisat Oshoala
has been named as the BBC Women's
Footballer of the Year.
The 20-year-old forward is the first player to
win the new award from the BBC World
Service, voted for by football fans around the
world.
She beat Spain's Veronica Boquete, German
Nadine Kessler, Scot Kim Little 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.
The award is the first of its kind hosted by a
global broadcaster.
Oshoala, who was the youngest player to be
shortlisted, was the tournament's leading
scorer and was voted best player at the
Under-20s World Cup in Canada last summer.
Her performances led Nigeria to the final,
where they were narrowly beaten by Germany
and she was also a major influence in the
senior Nigeria team who won the African
Women's Championship in October.
That ensured their qualification for this
summer's World Cup in Canada, which
begins on 6 June with full coverage on the
BBC.
Oshoala said the honour was a big lift for
Nigeria ahead of the World Cup and would
help inspire young players in her homeland.
She said: "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. 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.
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