Cynthia Uwak (born 15 July 1986 in

Akwa Ibom State Akwa Ibom is a States of Nigeria, state in the South South, South-South geopolitical zone of Nigeria. It borders Cross River State to the east, Rivers State and Abia State to the west and north-west, and the Atlantic Ocean to the south. The state ...

) is a Nigerian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

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 st ...

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 L ...

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 French professional association football, football club based in Lyon, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France. With origins dating back to 1899, they were founded in 1950 and p ...

team that won the

Division 1 Féminine Division may refer to: Mathematics *Division (mathematics), the inverse of multiplication *Division algorithm, a method for computing the result of mathematical division Military *Division (military), a formation typically consisting of 10,000 to ...

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 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 (Africa Cup of Nations, AFCON) winners, w ...

. Uwak competed at the

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

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 football competition for women held in China from 10 to 30 September 2007. Originally, China was to host the 2003 edition, but the outbreak o ...

. 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 tournam ...

in South Africa following an injury. The national coach Eucharia Uche said at the time that that 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 List of women's national association football teams, women's national association football, football teams. It was held from 26 June to ...

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 in 2016 for the

Africa Women Cup of Nations The Women's Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON), known for sponsorship purposes as the TotalEnergies Women's Africa Cup of Nations and formerly the African Women's Championship, is a biennial international women's football tournament organized by ...

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 homosexual woman or girl. 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 nouns with female homosexu ...

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 (WAFCON), known for sponsorship purposes as the TotalEnergies Women's Africa Cup of Nations and formerly the African Women's Championship, is a biennial international women's football tournament organized by t ...

(2): 2004, 2006

Personal

African Women Footballer of the Year African Women Footballer of the Year, an annual award for Africa's best female football player. It is awarded by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) in December each year. Nigeria's Asisat Oshoala has won the award a record six times. Th ...

(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 21st-century Nigerian sportswomen Nigeria women's international footballers 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup players Footballers at the 2008 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers for Nigeria 1. FC Saarbrücken (women) players OL Lyonnes 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 Footballers from Akwa Ibom State Women's association football forwards Première Ligue players Damallsvenskan players Frauen-Bundesliga players African Women's Footballer of the Year winners Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Falköpings KIK players {{Nigeria-women-footy-bio-stub