Falcons star Oparanozie delighted to start year with goal, assists

Super Falcons’ star striker Desire Oparanozie has expressed delight over her ‘man of the match’ performance for Guingamp at the weekend which saw her score a goal and gave two assists in her first game of 2018.

The player who was highest goal scorer as Nigeria lifted the 2016 African Women Nations Cup in Cameroon, is edging closer to becoming the country’s all time female national team’s highest scorer.

“2018 first game, first win, one goal, two assist... grand entry into the new year. Thanks for all your best wishes, have a blessed and productive week,” the France based player wrote on twitter.

Her non-nomination for the recent CAF Awards held in Ghana drew up some sort of criticisms as some analysts said she deserves at least a nomination given her exploits on the field in the past year.

She was not among the three contenders for the CAF women footballer of the year award held in Accra, Ghana last Thursday. Rather, it was the trio of Oshoala, Cameroon’s Gabrielle Aboudi Onguene and South African Chrestina Kgatlana who got the nod.

To a majority of pundits, the decision by CAF to ignore Oparanozie on the list was an unpardonable error.

Oparanozie, who joined the Franch side from Wolfsburg in 2014, has maintained a goalscoring run of 22 goals in 37 club appearances, with five goals from eight games this campaign.