Bay FC, the Bay Area’s new women’s professional soccer franchise in the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL), has signed Nigerian international Asisat Oshoala from FC Barcelona, the club announced on Thursday
Agba Baller has her teeming fams called Oshoala signed to a contract through the 2026 season with an option for the 2027 campaign.
Oshoala will join the team and be added to the roster pending the receipt of her P-1 visa and International Transfer Certificate (ITC). Oshoala will occupy an international roster spot.
Professionally, she began her career in Nigeria with Rivers Angels FC before making the move to Europe and signing with Liverpool on Jan. 23, 2015. Oshoala spent time with Liverpool and Arsenal, winning the 2016 FA Cup with Arsenal before signing with Chinese club Dalian in Feb. 2017. She won two league titles in China (2017, and 2018) and went on loan to Barcelona on Jan. 31, 2019, before making the permanent move in May 2019.
At Barcelona across five seasons (2019-23), Oshoala scored 107 goals in 149 appearances, including a record-setting season in 2022, when she was the joint-top scorer in the league with 19 goals. The two-time Ballon d’Or nominee led the team in scoring three times, helping the club win the UEFA Women’s Champions League twice (2020-21, 2022-23), earn four league titles, three Spanish Super Cups and the Copa de la Reina three times. She became the first African woman to win the UEFA Champions League final in 2021 and the first African woman to score in the Champions League final in 2019.
A six-time African Women’s Footballer of the Year, Oshoala has appeared in three FIFA Women’s World Cups (2015, 2019, 2023) with Nigeria, helping the team advance to the Round of 16 in both the 2019 and 2023 tournaments. As a youth international, she was the Golden Ball and Golden Boot winner at the 2014 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup, scoring seven goals in the tournament.
Meanwhile, Bay FC, set to debut in the NWSL’s 2024 season, will play their home games at PayPal Park in San Jose, California, and kick off their inaugural NWSL campaign against Angel City on March 17.
The potential transfer for the Africa Women’s Footballer of the year could command a fee of approximately €150,000 ($162,000).
“To have the opportunity to add a player of Asisat’s quality, experience and winning pedigree to our roster is an exciting and important day for the club and the NWSL,” said Bay FC General Manager Lucy Rushton. “She brings a top-class mentality to the field combined with pace and technical ability that allows her to lead the line, while also giving those players around her the license to be creative and thrive in space. Asisat is a proven goal scorer at the most elite levels of World football, and she comes here to continue that with Bay FC.”
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