Oshoala, Nkwocha, Adesanya, Kamaru make ESPN’s best 25 African athletes list

The Nigerian quartet of Asisat Oshoala, Israel Adesanya, Perpetua Nkwocha, and Kamaru Usman have been listed among the best 25 athletes from Africa in the 21st century by the prestigious US cable sports channel ESPN.

Oshoala and Nwokocha are female football players while Adesanya and Usman are mixed martial arts (MMA) male fighters.

Ethiopia’s long-distance runner Kenenisa Bekele, who dominated the 5,000 and 10,000-metre track races throughout the 2000s and held the world record in both distances until 2020, occupied the number one position on the list.

Oshoala secured the ninth spot, while Adesanya occupied the 15th position. Nkwocha and Usman took the 20th and 23rd spots respectively.

Oshoala was honoured for her exploits as a six-time winner of the ‘African Women’s Footballer of the Year’ award and for taking “African women’s football to new heights”.

Nwokocha was also recognized for her ruthlessness in front of goal. The attacker scored 80 goals in 99 appearances for the national women’s side, won the ‘African Women’s Footballer of the Year’ honour on four occasions, and is a five-time African Women’s Cup of Nations champion.

Adesanya and Usman were recognized for their reign in the middleweight and welterweight divisions respectively for four years (2019 to 2022).  They also have similar records of being two-time champions with five successful title defences in the UFC.

Adesanya, based in New Zealand, had previously been predicted as the “next big thing” in MMA.

Other notable mentions on the list include Samuel Eto’o, Yaya Toure, Sadio Mane, Casper Semanya, and Osi Umenyiora, an American football player of Nigerian descent who won two Super Bowls with the New York Giants.