Onome Ebi (born 8 May 1983) 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

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

for Spanish

Liga F The Primera División de la Liga de Fútbol Femenino, currently known as Liga F (finetwork Liga F for sponsorship reasons), is the highest level of league competition for women's football in Spain. It is the women's equivalent of the men's La Lig ...

club

FC Levante Las Planas Fútbol Club Levante Las Planas (Catalan: ''Llevant Les Planes'') is a Spanish football club from Sant Joan Despí, Barcelona currently playing in Liga F. History Levante Las Planas was founded in 1983 in Las Planas district as a merge of loca ...

and the Nigeria women's national team. In 2019 she became the first African footballer to play in 5 FIFA World Cup Tournaments.

Club career

She played for Bayelsa Queens FC in the

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 ...

before moving to

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 firs ...

and

Djurgårdens IF Djurgårdens Idrottsförening, commonly known simply as Djurgårdens IF, Djurgården (), and (especially locally) Djurgår'n (), Dif or DIF – is a Swedish sports association with several sections, located in Stockholm. Name The club is named ...

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 ...

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 ...

. Ebi said "I enjoyed my stay in Turkey because of the good weather. Going to Sweden was a different ball game, as the cold weather made it difficult for me to play good football. The amateur nature of the Swedish league made me launch a return to Turkey for Ataşehir Belediyespor FC in the First League." She then played for

Turkish Turkish may refer to: *a Turkic language spoken by the Turks * of or about Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities and mi ...

sides Düvenciler Lisesispor and

Ataşehir Belediyespor Ataşehir Belediyespor is a Turkish sports club based in the Ataşehir district of Istanbul. It is known for its women's football team that won the Turkish League championship in 2011, the fourth year of its existence. They defended their ...

at the First League. She made her Champions League debut in August 2012 while playing for Ataşehir Belediyespor. Ebi returned to the Swedish Damallsvenskan in 2013 to play for

Sunnanå SK Sunnanå SK is a football club from Skellefteå, Sweden who in 2019 plays in Swedish Women's Football Division 1, level 3 of women's soccer in Sweden. The club was established in 1939 and the women's division was added in 1974. Sunnanå has playe ...

before going to

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...

to play for

FC Minsk FC Minsk ( be, ФК Мінск) is a professional football club based in Minsk, Belarus. They play in the Belarusian Premier League, the highest tier of Belarusian football. Their colours are red and navy blue. History The club was establishe ...

in the

Belarusian Premier League The Belarusian Premier League or the Vyšejšaja Liha or the Vysheyshaya Liga ( be, Вышэйшая ліга, russian: Высшая лига, "Top League") is the top division of professional football in Belarus, and is organized by the Belarusi ...

. While there, she was a member of the team that won the

, the

Belarusian Women's Cup The Belarusian Women's Cup (Belarusian: ''Кубка Беларуси'') is the annual cup competition of women's football teams in Belarus. It was first contested in 1992. List of finals The list of finals: References External linksCup at ...

and the

Belarusian Women's Super Cup Belarusian may refer to: * Something of, or related to Belarus * Belarusians, people from Belarus, or of Belarusian descent * A citizen of Belarus, see Demographics of Belarus * Belarusian language * Belarusian culture * Belarusian cuisine * Byelor ...

twice. In both club and international competitions, Ebi plays as the number five in the team due to the significance it holds for her. When she arrived at Minsk, the jersey number was already taken, so she asked for the number 55 instead. She currently plays for Chinese second division side

Henan Jianye Henan Songshan Longmen Football Club (), previously known as Henan Jianye Football Club (), is a professional football club that currently participates in the Chinese Super League under licence from the Chinese Football Association (CFA). The team ...

, where she signed in 2018.

International career

Ebi is a member of the Nigerian national team. On 6 July 2019, she became the first African Footballer to play in five

Fifa World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

Tournaments, taking part in the

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

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 ...

and

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 ...

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 ...

editions of 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 the

2008 Beijing 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 Nat ...

. Ebi was also a member of the Nigerian squad in the

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

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 ...

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

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 ...

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 ...

and

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 ...

editions of the

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 ...

, winning the tournament four times

)

and

Honours

Club

; Ataşehir Belediyespor *

Turkish Women's First Football League The Turkish Women's Football Super League ( tr, Kadınlar Süper Ligi), formerly the First Women's Football League (also known as the ''Turkcell Women's Football Super League'' for sponsorship reasons), is the top level women's football league of ...

(2): 2011–12, 2012–13 ; FC Minsk *

(1):

(1): 2014 *

(2): 2014, 2015

International

; Nigeria *

(4):

Individual

* NFF-Aiteo Female Player Of The Year: 2018 * IFFHS CAF Woman Team of the Decade 2011–2020

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ebi, Onome 1983 births Living people Sportspeople from Lagos Nigerian women's footballers Women's association football central defenders Osun Babes F.C. players Bayelsa Queens F.C. players Piteå IF (women) players Djurgårdens IF Fotboll (women) players Lüleburgaz 39 Spor players Ataşehir Belediyespor players Sunnanå SK players FC Minsk (women) players Damallsvenskan players Nigeria women's international footballers 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup players 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup players Footballers at the 2008 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers of Nigeria 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup players 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup players 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup players Nigerian expatriate women's footballers Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Sweden Expatriate women's footballers in Sweden Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Expatriate women's footballers in Turkey Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Belarus Expatriate women's footballers in Belarus Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in China Expatriate women's footballers in China