Courtney Ozioma Dike (born 3 February 1995) is a footballer who plays as a forward. Born in the United States, she represents the

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

at international level.

College career

Born in

Edmond, Oklahoma Edmond is a city in Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, United States. It is a part of the Oklahoma City metropolitan area, located in Central Oklahoma. Its population was 94,428 according to the 2020 United States census, a 16% increase from 2010. maki ...

, Courtney attended

Edmond North High School Edmond North High School is located in Edmond, Oklahoma. The school colors are silver, white and navy. The school's mascot is the Siberian Husky. As of the 2012–2013 school year, the school had an enrollment of 2,437 students and 127 classro ...

and played

college soccer College soccer, called college football in some countries, is played by teams composed of soccer players who are enrolled in colleges and universities. While it is most widespread in the United States, it is also prominent in Japan, South Kore ...

Oklahoma State University Oklahoma State University (informally Oklahoma State or OSU) is a public land-grant research university in Stillwater, Oklahoma, United States. The university was established in 1890 under the legislation of the Morrill Act. Originally known ...

. In her four years at Edmond North High School, she scored over 90 goals. She studied

accounting Accounting, also known as accountancy, is the process of recording and processing information about economic entity, economic entities, such as businesses and corporations. Accounting measures the results of an organization's economic activit ...

and played for the Oklahoma State University women's soccer team.

International career

In 2014, Courtney received a call up to represent the Nigerian U-20 national team for the

2014 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup The 2014 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup was an international association football tournament and the world championship for women's national teams under the age of 20, presented by Grant Connell, organized by the sport's world governing body FIFA. I ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

where she scored the fastest goal in the history of the competition after just 13 seconds in a match against

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders China and Russia to the north at the Yalu River, Yalu (Amnok) an ...

. Her performance in the tournament earned her three nominations at the 2014 Nigeria Sports Award. Courtney went on to represent Nigeria at the

2015 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup was the seventh FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international soccer championship contested by the women's national teams of the member associations of FIFA. The tournament was hosted by Canada for the f ...

, also in Canada. On 12 June 2015, she made history by becoming the first native Oklahoman to ever play in the World Cup after coming on as a substitute for

Asisat Oshoala Asisat Lamina Oshoala (born 9 October 1994) is a Nigerian professional association football, footballer who plays as a Striker (association football), striker for National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) club Bay FC and the Nigeria women's nation ...

in a match against

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

Personal life

She has two brothers,

Bright Bright may refer to: Common meanings *Bright, an adjective meaning giving off or reflecting illumination; see Brightness *Bright, an adjective meaning someone with intelligence People * Bright (surname) * Bright (given name) *Bright, the stage na ...

and

Daryl Darryl is a given name, a variant spelling of Darell. Variations of this name include: Daryl, Daryll, Darryll, and Darrel. People Darryl * Darryl Brown (West Indian cricketer) (born 1973) * Darryl Brown (South African cricketer) (born 1983) ...

, and two sisters, Kimberly and Brittny. It was reported in the media that she rejected the bonus given to her for her role in the

. She explained in a letter sent to the

Nigeria Football Federation The Nigeria Football Federation (known as Nigeria Football Association until 2008) is Nigeria's association football, football sports governing body, governing body. It was formally launched in 1945 and formed the first Nigerian national football ...

that "I am delighted to play for Nigeria whenever called upon. I knew before leaving for the U-20 World Cup that I would not accept any bonuses. Acceptance of prize money is against NCAA regulations (the division 1 collegiate governing body) here in the US, so that is the main reason for rejecting it."

Honours

Nigeria U20 *

FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup The FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup is an international association football tournament, organized by FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association), for national teams of women under the age of 20. The tournament is held biennially. ...

Runner-up:

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

Individual *"All-City Player of the Year" (2013) *

Big 12 Conference The Big 12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. It consists of 16 full-member universities (3 private universities and 13 public universities) in the states of Arizona, Colorado, Florida ...

Offensive Player of the Year:

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

* Nigeria Sports Award Discovery of the Year: 2014 * Nigeria Sports Award Sports Woman of the Year: 2014 nomination * Nigeria Sports Award Footballer (women) of the Year: 2014 nomination

References

External links

* * * 1995 births Living people Nigerian women's footballers 21st-century Nigerian sportswomen Nigeria women's international footballers 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup players Oklahoma State Cowgirls soccer players Sportspeople from Edmond, Oklahoma Soccer players from Oklahoma American sportspeople of Nigerian descent Women's association football forwards {{Nigeria-women-footy-bio-stub