CLOSE-UP: Michelle Alozie, the Falcons star juggling football with part-time cancer research practice

Professional football has been described as a demanding, consuming career path. A jealous profession that permits no rival interest amid its rigour of unending training, practices and conditioning. A hectic job that consumes its practitioners too wholly with no room to spare for other hobbies. Those were the descriptions until professional football met the multitasking powerhouse named Michelle Alozie. 

Standing at just 5.5 inches with a slim build, the slight figure of Alozie balances the crushing weight of professional football and experimental medicine with a constant smile on her onyx-coloured face.

She is a multi-talented high-achiever with a degree in microbiology and a handful of Women’s World Cup appearances. Alozie spends her mornings causing problems for defenders at the training ground and her evenings seeking global solutions as a cancer research technician.

The Nigerian-American became an inspiration to girls at the 2023 Women’s World Cup. As Alozie played and ran for Nigeria’s Super Falcons till one could see her heart and strength buckle, her story journeyed far and wide.

Alozie is a tale of an all-rounder who has managed to leverage time and nature to achieve all her childhood dreams despite their contrasts.

AN ALL-ROUNDER STUDENT

Michelle Chinwendu Alozie was born on April 28, 1997, in Apple Valley, California, US. Her parents — Chioma and Godwin Alozie — are natives of Owerri city, Imo state, but they moved overseas for better opportunities.

Alozie has two older sisters — Cyn and Cass. The older siblings were her mentors and she modelled all her preferences after “whatever they do”.

When Cass and Cyn began playing football as children, the love of the sport was kindled in their little sister, who they adorably dubbed “Meech”.

“I have two older sisters, and I just wanted to do whatever they do. So, they picked up soccer because one of our older cousins did it. And I picked it up also because I wanted to be like them.” Alozie said in an interview with EaglesTracker.

Her interest in football matured from an infantile fad to a precocious talent when she was admitted into Granite Hills High School in El Cajon, Califonia.

Alozie wanted to be a striker and spent hours admiring and imitating the techniques of Mario Balotelli and Edison Cavani, her favourite footballers.

The understudy paid off in high school, where a rapid Alozie scored seven goals in one game and went on to net 44 goals in a single season. Her legendary goals became a programme record in the school.

Alozie said she was born with “Nigerian grit” and the hard work of her Igbo lineage. She was an all-rounder student who broke school records in the 100m and 200m dashes and garnered academic distinctions.

She was also a prominent member of Legends FC’s girls’ U-15 team, which won the US Youth Soccer National League in 2012.

Alozie moved to Yale University in 2015 and made her exploits with the institution’s female football team. She was named Ivy League Co-Offensive Player of the Year in her junior year before she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Molecular Biology in 2019.

The period was the point the high-flying Alozie got her first obstacle. She registered for the 2019 National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) college draft but was rejected.

“I just knew that, regardless of where I go, as long as I believe in myself, as long as I put in the work to differentiate myself in whatever situation or environment that I’m in, then things will happen,” Alozie reminisced about those periods with The Equaliser.

“Just believe in yourself and just know that your path is your path, and it’s fine for it to look different than other people’s.”

A resilient Alozie took a graduate year at the University of Tennessee. She played for the Tennessee Volunteers, the institution’s female football team, for a year before moving to Europe.

She signed for BIIK Kazygurt in the Kazakhstan Women’s League in 2020 but only trained with the team for three months before returning to the US.

Her return to the US rewarded her resilience, and she was signed by Huston Dash in 2021.

UNUSUAL PATH INTO THE SUPER FALCONS

Alozie said she has always wanted to play for the Nigerian women’s national team. Her path into the team was so incredible it reads like a Hollywood script.

In June 2021, the Falcons were scheduled to participate in a four-nation in the US in Houston and Austin, Texas. The competition was Randy Waldrum’s first since he took charge of the team a year earlier. The team would play the US, Jamaica and Portugal in the invitational tourney.

But a little snag was in the Falcons’ cog. A spate of visa issues had ruled out several big names from the team list. Desperate to fill the void, Waldrum scoured for available Nigeria-linked players willing to play for the country.

Alozie was on trial at Houston Dash, with contract talks with the team still far on the horizon, when Waldrum came to scout.

The Falcons coach was impressed, and Alozie was drafted into the Nigerian team alongside Esther Okonkwo. But there were some changes to come.

“I’m actually a striker, but when the coach came up to me and asked if I could play as a wing-back,” Alozie said.

“I said ‘yeah,’ and I was going to do whatever I could to get on the Falcons team. So, I just switched my mind from attacking to defending.”

A few days later, she made her Falcons’ debut in a 1-0 loss to Jamaica in the opener of the invitational tourney. Alozie scored her first goal for Nigeria in a 3-3 draw against Portugal in the final game of the competition.

PART-TIME CANCER RESEARCH TECHNICIAN

After Alozie signed a professional football contract with Houston Dash in 2021, she realised half her childhood dream.

A restless and ambitious Alozie soon intertwine medicine, the other half of her dream, into her already hectic daily life.

She applied for a cancer research technician role to stop her from “just wasting away” during her free time as a professional athlete.

“In pre-season, I didn’t have this job. So, once we were done with the morning session, done with weights and everything, I kind of felt like I was just doing nothing,” Alozie told the Dash media team in an interview.

“I was just sitting at home, watching Netflix shows, or doing solo sessions with a trainer every other day; but for the most part, I felt like I was just wasting away because we had so much free time, I felt.”

Alozie was employed at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, Texas, on a part-time basis.

“If I finish here (with the Dash) at noon or 1 p.m., I’ll run over to the lab,” she said.

“Thankfully, it’s really close to our facility. So, I’ll just run over to the med centre and help out wherever my coworkers left off. I’ll usually go in on weekends, too.”

Alexandra Stevens, the doctor who oversees Alozie at the hospital, praised her drive and hunger to combine both fields successfully.

“Michelle has exactly what I look for in everybody I want to work with — she has fire,” she said.

“She has the desire to make a difference in the world, to use her talents and strengths to the best of her ability, and I love that. It’s what moves the field of pediatric oncology forward.”

Alozie has repeatedly maintained that she hopes to pursue a career as a doctor when her playing days are entirely behind her.

WINNING THE HEARTS OF NIGERIANS AT 2023 WWC

Since making her debut for the Falcons, Alozie has been a mainstay in the team. Featuring at right back, she interpreted her defensive roles like it is natural.

Fierce in tackling and tracking back and, more importantly, bursting forward down the flank to create overload in attack when needed.

Alozie’s first major competition for Nigeria was the 2022 African Women’s Nations Cup (AWCON) in Morroco. She was part of the side that finished fourth and booked a ticket for the 2023 WWC.

Alozie played all of Nigeria’s four matches at the World Cup and was involved in an incident which got Lauren James sent off after the England player stumped her.

She cantered down the length of the World Cup pitches in unmatching pair of boots — a tribute to Balotelli. Alozie’s passion, work rate and beauty charmed Nigerians, particularly the men. And the lessons in her story of resilience — that one can achieve all one dreams to be in a lifetime — resonant and inspire others.