Mukarama Abdulai (born 16 October 2002) is a Ghanaian professional footballer who last played 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 Spanish club Deportivo Alavés, the Black Maidens and the Ghana women's national team.

College career

University for Development Studies

In late 2018, Abdulai gained admission into the University for Development Studies (UDS) and joined the school's football team. During the 8th edition of the Ghana University Sports Association (GUSA) mini games in 2019, she led the team to win the female football tournament scoring three goals to win the top scorer and the best player of the tournament accolade.

Tyler Junior College

In August 2019, she got a scholarship to study at the Tyler Junior College in Texas, USA, whilst pursuing her football career. During her debut season for the Tyler Junior College women's soccer team, she scored 27 goals and made 13 assists to help the team win the 2019 NJCAA Gulf South District Championship and the NJCAA Women's Soccer Championship, including a brace in the final. After recording three consecutive braces to close out the tournament, she was selected as the Most Valuable Offensive Player of the competition. In her second season, she scored 23 goals and made 10 assists to help the team win the 2020 NJCAA Gulf South District Championship and the NJCAA Women's Soccer Championship for the second consecutive year. In the finals she scored a brace as Tyler College beat

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(Utah) 2–0 in the final match of the season to complete the campaign with an 18–0 record. She ended the championship as the top scorer, points leader and was also adjudged the

Most Valuable Player In team sports, a most valuable player award, abbreviated 'MVP award', is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a particu ...

Club career

Abdulai joined Ghana Premier League side

Northern Ladies FC Northern Ladies F.C. is a Ghanaian professional women's football club based in Tamale in the Northern Region of Ghana. The club features in the Ghana Women’s Premier League. The club was formed as the major women's team in the three northern re ...

in 2011 at the age of 9. During the 2020–21 season, on match day 1 she scored a hat-trick in their 3–1 win over Ashtown Ladies on 17 January 2021. She scored two goals in the first half and one in the second half to seal the first win for the club. On 16 July 2021, Alavés, announced that they had signed Abdulai on a two-year deal and was set to stay with the club until 2023. In January 2023, Abdulai and Alavés announced that she had mutually terminated her contract with the club.

International career

She captained Ghana's squad during the

2018 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup The 2018 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup was the 6th edition of the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup, the biennial international women's youth football championship contested by the under-17 national teams of the member associations of FIFA, since its inc ...

in Uruguay, where she won the Golden Boot for her tournament-best seven goals and two assists. She scored a hat-trick in the first match against the host country. In addition, she won the Bronze Ball. After her exploits with the team, she was adjudged the Women's footballer of the Year for 2018 by SWAG, beating Grace Asantewaa and Faustina Ampah to the award. Abdulai was called up to the senior team ahead of the

2019 WAFU Zone B Women's Cup The 2019 WAFU Zone B Women's Cup was the second edition of the international women's football event for teams from Zone B of the West African Football Union (WAFU). The competition was hosted by Ivory Coast, and Ghana were the defending champions ...

. She made her debut during the first match of the tournament against Senegal and scored a goal to help Ghana seal a 2–0 victory. She was named on Ghana

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side and made captain ahead of a double friendly match against Morocco in November 2020. She made her debut in the first match on 23 November 2020 with Ghana suffering a 1–0 defeat, however in the second match on 30 November, she scored a brace to help Ghana win by 4–0.

Honours

Ghana *

WAFU Zone B Women's Cup The WAFU Zone B Women's Cup is a women's association football competition contested by national teams of Zone B of the West African Football Union The West African Football Union (french: Union des Fédérations Ouest-Africaines de Football; pt, ...

Third place :

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Individual

* FIFA Under 17 Women's World Cup Golden Shoe:

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* FIFA Under 17 Women's World Cup Bronze Ball:

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Women's Footballer of the Year: 2018 * Ghana Football Awards Women's Footballer of the Year: 2019 * Ghana Football Awards Rising Star Award: 2019

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Abdulai, Mukarama Living people 2002 births Ghanaian women's footballers Ghana women's international footballers Dagomba people People from Tamale, Ghana Women's association football forwards Deportivo Alavés Gloriosas players Tyler Apaches women's soccer players Ghanaian expatriate women's footballers Expatriate women's soccer players in the United States Expatriate women's footballers in Spain Ghanaian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Ghanaian expatriate sportspeople in the United States