Mercy Akide was a football star in the Super Falcons, she is a twice top scorer and three-time champion of the African Women Championship. Akide is the first African woman who got a soccer scholarship in the US. Her single-season record is 49 goals in Milligan College (Tennessee).
Mercy is the first African female footballer to played professional soccer in the US for San Diego Spirit. She was included in All-Star Selection by FIFA tree times. Mercy Akide played for Nigeria at three World Cups, two Olympic Games, and three African Women’s Nations Cups.
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Also, Akide became the first African Woman Footballer of the Year in 2000 – 2002. At present, she is a FIFA Ambassador and footballer of the FIFA Legends team.
Mercy Akide Udoh (born 26 August 1975 in Port Harcourt, Nigeria) is a former Nigerian football player.
Mercy started playing football at the age of five with her oldest brother Seleipiri and younger brother Ipali in the sandy field of Bundu Waterside, near Port Harcourt Prisons in Port Harcourt.
Her speed was recognized from a young age, and when she was 12 years old, at Holy Rosary Secondary School in Port Harcourt, she took part in long-distance races, running the 400m, 800m and 1500m races against older competitors.
She was also a regional table tennis champion, but soccer was the sport where she really stood out.
Mercy earned the nickname “Ske”, which in local parlance meant “skinny”, while playing against boys at Mile 1 in Port Harcourt.
Among her many admirers then was a young kid called Chidi Odiah, who is now a full Nigeria international, playing club football with CSKA Moscow.
In consideration of her skills in particular, a group of youth soccer organisers put together a girls’ tournament to select the girls who would become “the Garden City Queens”.
After two years of playing for the Queens, and turning down the overtures of the rival Port Harcourt-based Larry’s Angels, Akide left Port Harcourt for Lagos to continue both education and soccer with Jegede Babes under the influence of Princess Bola Jegede.
Her two seasons of consistency with Jegede Babes, where she scored a total of 49 goals in two seasons, caught the attention of national coach Ismaila Mabo and Mercy was called to camp in 1994. But another rush of goals, 17 in the league and 9 in the Challenge Cup earned her a recall.
Her international debut came soon after, a World Cup qualifier against Sierra Leone in Ibadan with Mercy playing as a winger. She marked it with two goals.
She scored one more in the return leg to cement her place in the team. In 2001, she was named the first African Women Footballer of the Year, and was a 1999 and 2004 FIFA World All-Star.
She has played for Nigeria in three FIFA Women’s World Cups and also helped Nigeria’s Super Falcons to three African Women Championships (AWC) titles in 1998, 2000 and 2002. In November 2004, she married football journalist Colin Udoh in her home town of Port Harcourt.
In 2005, she was named by FIFA as one of its 15 Ambassadors for Women Football.
Her life has been a success. Considering where she came from, and the things she has had to go through to get to where she is today, then you’ll agree that her life is a success.
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