Francisca Ordega (born 19 October 1993) is a Nigerian professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

for

CSKA Moscow CSKA Moscow (russian: ЦСКА Москва) is a Russian sports club based in Moscow. It was created in 1911 in the Russian Empire on base of OLLS (Skiing Society, founded 1901). Later, during the Soviet Union, Soviet era, it was a central piece ...

in the

Russian Women's Football Championship The Russian Women's Football Championship (russian: Чемпионат России по футболу среди женщин), also known as the Top Division and the Women's Football League, is the highest professional women's football league ...

. She represents

Nigeria women's national football team The Nigeria national women's football team, nicknamed the Super Falcons, represents Nigeria in international women's football and is controlled by the Nigeria Football Federation. The team is by far Africa's most successful international women ...

(Super Falcons) at both the

FIFA Women's World Cup The FIFA Women's World Cup is an international association football competition contested by the senior women's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association ( FIFA), the sport's international governing bo ...

and

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 ...

. She was also nominated for best female African footballer

Playing career

Club

Bayelsa Queens

Ordega began her career at the youth level for Bayelsa Queens, before being promoted to the professional side in 2008 where she played at

Nigerian Women's Championship The NWFL Premiership (formerly Nigeria Women Premier League) is the top-level league for women's association football in Nigeria. It is the women's equivalent of the men's league, the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL). The Nigeria Wome ...

Rivers Angels

In 2011, she moved to Rivers Angels, one of the top clubs in

WFC Rossiyanka

In 2012, Ordega left

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

to sign with Russian champions Rossiyanka of the

. In November 2012, it was announced that Ordega and Rossiyanka mutually parted ways.

Piteå IF

In 2013, Ordega signed for

Piteå IF Piteå Idrottsförening, commonly known as Piteå IF, is a Swedish football club located in Piteå that currently competes in Sweden's top-division women's league, Damallsvenskan. In 2018, they won the Swedish national Championship for the fi ...

in the

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

Damallsvenskan The Damallsvenskan, Swedish for ''ladies all-Swedish'' and also known as OBOS Damallsvenskan for sponsorship reasons, is the highest division of women's football in Sweden. It is also referred to as the women's Allsvenskan. The term Allsvenskan ...

. She scored her first goal on 26 May 2013 in a drawing effort against

Vittsjö GIK Vittsjö Gymnastik- och Idrottsklubb is a football club from Vittsjö, Sweden. They play in the highest level of women's soccer leagues in Sweden, the Damallsvenskan The Damallsvenskan, Swedish for ''ladies all-Swedish'' and also known as OB ...

. Between 2013 and 2015, she made 34 appearances and score 4 goals during her time in Sweden.

Washington Spirit

Ordega then moved across the North Atlantic and signed with

Washington Spirit The Washington Spirit is an American professional soccer club based in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area that participates in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). It is a continuation of the D.C. United Women of the W-League and cont ...

in the

National Women's Soccer League The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) is a professional women's soccer league at the top of the United States league system. It is owned by the teams and, until 2020, was under a management contract with the United States Soccer Federatio ...

. In her first season with the Spirit, Ordega scored three goals and made two assists. She returned in

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

to score two goals during the regular season. The Nigerian's most memorable Spirit goal came in the NWSL Semifinal when she scored in extra time to send the Spirit to its first ever NWSL Championship. In July 2017, Ordega suffered a knee injury that would limit her minutes for the remainder of the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

. Despite the injury, she would still earn 14 appearances and scoring 4 goals.

=Loan to Sydney FC

= In December 2016,

Sydney FC Sydney Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Sydney, New South Wales. It competes in the country's premier men's competition, A-League Men, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues (APL). The club was fo ...

signed Ordega on loan from Washington for the remainder of the 2016–17 W-League season. The loan made her the first African to play in the Australian W-League. Ordega would make six appearances and score once helping Sydney earn 3rd place in the

league League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football Sports * Sports league * Rugby league, full contact footba ...

=Loan to Atlético Madrid

= On 20 October 2017, Ordega joined Spanish club

Atlético Madrid Club Atlético de Madrid, Sociedad Anónima Deportiva, S.A.D. (; meaning "Athletic Club of Madrid"), known simply as Atleti in the Spanish-speaking world and commonly referred to at international level as Atlético Madrid, is a Spanish profess ...

on a six-month loan from Washington. She made her debut on 1 November 2017 against

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

=Move to Shanghai WFC

= Ordega secured a one-year move to Shanghai WFC

= Levante UD

= In April 2021, Ordega signed a deal with

Levante UD Levante Unión Deportiva, S.A.D. (, ca-valencia, Llevant Unió Esportiva ) is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football club in Valencia, in the Valencian Community, namesake autonomous community. Founded on 9 September 1909, Levante ...

running until 2023, in an attempt to boost their pursuit of qualifying for Champions League football for the first time in their history. Ordega made her debut on 22 May 2021 against

Madrid CFF Madrid Club de Fútbol Femenino (; ''Madrid Women's Football Club'') is a Spanish women's football club based in San Sebastián de los Reyes, Community of Madrid, that currently plays in Liga F. History Madrid CFF was founded in 2010 by Alfred ...

, coming an as a substitute in the 67th minute in a 3–2 victory.

International career

Ordega represented the

in all levels. With the under 17, she played the 2010 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup and with the under 20 at 2012 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup. At senior level she played in the

tournaments of

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

and

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

. At the latter she opened her World Cup account by scoring Nigeria's equalizing goal against

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

on 8 June 2015 in

Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...

, Canada. The pulsating match ended 3–3 in the opening game of Group D. She was also part of Nigeria's squads at the

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

and

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

, winning both tournaments. In 2018, She was also a member of the Nigerian squad who won the 2018 Africa Women Cup of Nations in Ghana, A tournament where she had two goals and two assists and won the woman of the match award at the final game against South Africa. She was part of the Super Falcons squad that won the 2021 Turkish Women's Cup in

Antalya, Turkey Antalya () is the fifth-most populous city in Turkey as well as the capital of Antalya Province. Located on Anatolia's southwest coast bordered by the Taurus Mountains, Antalya is the largest Turkish city on the Mediterranean coast outside the Ae ...

in February and thereby becoming the first African team to win the invitational tournament.

International goals

''Scores and results list Nigeria's goal tally first''

Honours

Club

; Rivers Angels * Nigerian Women's Cup (1): 2012 ; Atlético Madrid * Primera División (1): 2017–18

International

; Nigeria *

(4):

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

References

External links

* * * (2013) * (2014)
Profile
at

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ordega, Francisca 1993 births Living people People from Gboko Nigerian women's footballers Nigeria women's international footballers Piteå IF (women) players WFC Rossiyanka players Washington Spirit players Sydney FC (A-League Women) players Atlético Madrid Femenino players National Women's Soccer League players A-League Women players Women's association football forwards 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup players 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup players Primera División (women) players 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup players Damallsvenskan players Nigerian expatriate women's footballers Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Russia Expatriate women's footballers in Russia Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Sweden Expatriate women's footballers in Sweden Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate women's soccer players in the United States Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Australia Expatriate women's soccer players in Australia Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate women's footballers in Spain Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in China Expatriate women's footballers in China Bayelsa Queens F.C. players Rivers Angels F.C. players 21st-century Nigerian women