Therese Ninon Abena (born 5 September 1994), known as Ninon Abena, is a

Cameroon Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It shares boundaries with Nigeria to the west and north, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the R ...

ian

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 lea ...

who plays as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

for the Cameroon women's national team.

Domestic career

Abena played for Cameroon top division team Louves Minproff, before signing for Italian Serie C club ACF Torino in November 2019. She signed a one-year contract. She missed a Cameroon qualification game for the

2020 Summer Olympics The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...

in order to finalise her club deal.

International career

Abena was part of the

squad 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 ...

. At the time of the squad announcement, she had made 3 appearances. She didn't make an appearance at the tournament. She played in the final of the

2015 African Games The 11th African Games (), also known as Brazzaville 2015, took place from September 4–19, 2015 in Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo. This edition marked the 50th anniversary of the Games, as well as their return to Brazzaville, which hosted t ...

, which Cameroon lost to

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

. She was included in the squad for the

2018 Africa Women Cup of Nations The 2018 Women's Africa Cup of Nations (officially known as the Total Women's Africa Cup Of Nations, Ghana 2018) was the 13th edition of the Africa Women Cup of Nations (formerly African Women's Championship), the biennial international football ...

, and scored two goals as Cameroon beat

Mali Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is the List of African countries by area, eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of over . The country is bordered to the north by Algeria, to the east b ...

4–2 in the third-placed playoff. The result meant that Cameroon qualified for the

2019 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup was the eighth edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international Women's association football, football championship contested by 24 List of women's national association football teams, women's ...

in France. She made two appearances at the 2019 World Cup.

Personal life

Abena is the youngest of 20 siblings. One of her older sisters was unhappy when Abena started playing football.

References

External links

FIFA Profile
* 1994 births Living people Cameroonian women's footballers Women's association football midfielders Cameroon women's international footballers 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup players 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup players African Games silver medalists for Cameroon African Games silver medalists in football Footballers at the 2015 African Games Cameroonian expatriate women's footballers Cameroonian expatriate sportspeople in Italy Expatriate women's footballers in Italy 21st-century Cameroonian sportswomen {{Cameroon-women-footy-bio-stub