Cynthia Uwak (born 15 July 1986 in

Akwa Ibom State Akwa Ibom State is a state in the South-South geopolitical zone of Nigeria, bordered on the east by Cross River State, on the west by Rivers State and Abia State, and on the south by the Atlantic Ocean. The state takes its name from the Qua Iboe ...

) is a Nigerian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

striker who most recently played for

Åland United Åland United is a Finnish women's football club based in Lemland, Åland. They compete in the Kansallinen Liiga, the premier women's football league in Finland. In 2004 Åland's clubs Lemlands IF and IF Finströms Kamraterna decided to stren ...

in the

Naisten Liiga The Kansallinen Liiga ('National League') is the premier division of women's football in Finland. It was previously called the Jalkapallon naisten SM-sarja ('Women's Football Finnish Championship Series') during 1974 to 2006 and the Naisten Lii ...

in Finland.

Early life

Cynthia Uwak's first experience of playing football was against boys in the streets of her hometown. She was supported by her mother to pursue football, and was able to combine playing with her secondary education.

Football career

Club

Cynthia Uwak began her club career with Finnish women's side KMF, and has spent the majority of her club career in Scandinavia with the exception of a stint in France and Germany. She was part of the

Olympique Lyonnais Olympique Lyonnais (), commonly referred to as simply Lyon () or OL, is a men and women's French professional football club based in Lyon in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. The men play in France's highest football division, Ligue 1. Founded in 1950, th ...

team that won the

Division 1 Féminine The Division 1 Féminine, shortened as D1 Féminine or D1F, and currently known as D1 Arkema for sponsorship reasons, is the highest division of women's football in France. Run by the French Football Federation, the league is contested by twelv ...

title in France in 2009. After moving to Finnish side Åland United, she won a further Naisten Liiga title in 2013, and was the top goal scorer in the division.

International

She is also a member of the

Nigeria national football team The Nigeria national football team represents Nigeria in men's international Association football, football. Governed by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), they are three-time Africa Cup of Nations winners, with their most recent title in ...

. Uwak competed at the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...

and the

2007 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup, the fifth edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, was an international association football competition for women held in China from 10 to 30 September 2007. Originally, China was to host the 2003 edition, but th ...

. She missed out on the squad for the

2010 African Women's Championship The 2010 African Women's Championship was held in South Africa from 31 October to 14 November 2010. Seven national teams joined the host nation following a series of knock-out home and away ties. This tournament was also a qualification tournamen ...

in South Africa following an injury. It was stated at the time by coach Eucharia Uche that this would not automatically mean that she would be left out of the squad for the

2011 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup was the sixth FIFA Women's World Cup competition, the world championship for women's national association football teams. It was held from 26 June to 17 July 2011 in Germany, which won the right to host the even ...

during the following year. However, when the World Cup squad was announced, Uwak was not listed. No specific reason was given for her omission, with a general statement saying "The coach has strictly gone with players that are capable of doing the country proud at the World Cup in Germany". She was considered for a return to the national team by coach

Florence Omagbemi Florence Omagbemi (born 2 February 1975) is a Nigerian former football midfielder. She was part of the Nigeria women's national football team across four FIFA Women's World Cups, several Africa Women Cup of Nations and at the 2000 Summer Olym ...

in 2016 for the

Africa Women Cup of Nations The Women's Africa Cup of Nations, also called the TotalEnergies Women's Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons and abbreviated to WAFCON, is an international women's football competition held every two years and sanctioned by the Conf ...

in Cameroon. The coach was looking at a succession of former players in an effort to bolster the team's chances at the upcoming tournament.

Personal life

Uwak has previously spoken out against the notion that all women involved in football are

lesbian A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...

s; "saying that female footballers are lesbians is rather pathetic. You can’t just label people based on assumptions."

Honours

Club

(1): 2009 *

(3): 2011, 2012, 2013

International

African Women's Championship The Women's Africa Cup of Nations, also called the TotalEnergies Women's Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons and abbreviated to WAFCON, is an international women's football competition held every two years and sanctioned by the Confe ...

(2): 2004, 2006

Personal

* African Women Footballer of the Year (2): 2006, 2007 *

top scorer (1): 2013

References

External links

Cynthia Uwak profile Women's League in Finland
(Finnish) * 1986 births Living people Nigerian women's footballers Nigeria women's international footballers 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup players Footballers at the 2008 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers of Nigeria 1. FC Saarbrücken (women) players Olympique Lyonnais Féminin players Åland United players FC United (Jakobstad) players Kansallinen Liiga players Expatriate women's footballers in Finland Expatriate women's footballers in France Expatriate women's footballers in Germany Expatriate women's footballers in Sweden PK-35 Vantaa (women) players Sportspeople from Akwa Ibom State Women's association football forwards Division 1 Féminine players Damallsvenskan players Frauen-Bundesliga players African Women's Footballer of the Year winners {{Nigeria-women-footy-bio-stub