Ayisat Yusuf, who represented Nigeria in the prestigious tournament, visited ‘s World Cup studio. Yusuf was awarded in the fall of 2022 for the development of the sport for girls and women in his home country.
Football influencer, former Nigerian national team player Ayisat Yusuf visited ‘s World Cup studio on Monday to evaluate his country’s performances. Historically, three African countries advanced to the quarterfinals of the Women’s World Cup: Morocco, Nigeria and South Africa.
Yusuf believes that the development of football in African countries and the transfer of several African players abroad has promoted the game on the continent. The teams play well together, the team spirit is excellent and the players support each other on the field.
– As you can see, their joint play has already paid off until now.
Yusuf has represented his country in the World Cup in 2007 and the Olympics in 2008. In addition, he is a three-time African champion. In his career, he has also played in Oulu, Pori and Kuopio in Finland.
Nowadays, he coaches in the Helsinki clubs Gnistan and Pohjois Haaga Urheilijai (POHU). In addition, she works as a responsible exercise instructor at Multinational Women’s Welfare and Sports Association in Monaliiku.
In the fall of 2022, Yusuf was awarded the Player Voice award from FifPro, the umbrella organization of football’s international players’ associations. A tribute the reason is mentioned empowering girls and women through her foundation SheFootball.
– Many thanks To Panu Autio and Aku to Tervaniemi for their support and encouragement. Thanks to them, the foundation has grown bigger.
Panu Autio, chairman of the Finnish Football Players’ Association, presented the award to Yusuf in October. See the picture below or from this link.
The aim is to support girl children
Yusuf says in an interview with that he has followed a challenging path. He says that he has a Muslim background and was not allowed to play football as a child due to cultural and religious restrictions. Besides that, he lost his father when he was 8 years old and lived with his aunts.
– I always tried to sneak out to play football, even if I couldn’t. At that time, it was taboo for girls to play. I don’t want any girl child to go through what I had to go through as a child.
Yusuf states that he had to fight to play. “Football was a concrete escape route because he had to run away from home,” says Yusuf. The invitation to the Nigerian national team was a turning point that gave the young footballer special privileges and a lot of opportunities.
– I managed to break stereotypes and change parents’ views on girl children. When I was seen playing for the national team on TV, families wanted their girls to play football. It was a dream come true for me.
Those experiences inspired me to found a foundation whose goal is to support girl children and encourage women to participate in sports. In the early days of the foundation, approximately 170 girls were involved in the activities, but nowadays the activities reach up to 400-500 girls in Nigeria every year.
– Our foundation does not only support emigrants. We use sports to promote mental health and well-being in the sense that we also invite immigrants to participate in sports.
The corruption of African sports federations is breaking
Yusuf also commented on the corruption of African football federations. Before the start of the WC tournament, it was reported about the problems of numerous goal associations. For example, according to Fifa, the Nigerian sports federation is corrupt. According to Yusuf, African football confederations do not have good enough structures, resources or support.
– Whenever it’s football, it’s important to appoint the right people to the right positions. If people are chosen who know nothing about football management… Everything starts at the grassroots level because that’s where skill development starts. When players are invited to national team camps, players with merit in some way must be selected. Such players who can help the team, but at the same time inspire the younger generations, Yusuf estimated.
However, according to him, things are changing. There is a lot of criticism and nowadays players know their rights. In Yusuf’s opinion, in this developing situation, additional support from the state and the media is needed in order to increase awareness of the development of women’s football.
You can find everything about the World Cup: Competition news, topics, Futistietäjä, program, results and statistics on ‘s World Cup website here.