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 lea ...

who plays as a

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

for Nigerian club Abia Angels and the Nigeria women's national team. In 2023 she became the first African footballer, male or female, to play in 6

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...

tournaments.

Club career

She played for Bayelsa Queens FC in the Nigerian Women's Championship 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, which it won in 2018. History The sports club Piteå IF ...

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. Djurgårdens IF is an s ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

Damallsvenskan The (; ), known as OBOS for sponsorship reasons, is the highest division of women's football in Sweden. It is one of the best women's leagues in the world, and was founded in 1988. The division consists of a league of 14 teams. From 2013, t ...

. 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 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 association football, women's football team that won the Turkish League championship in 2011, the fourth year of its existence. ...

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 2024 plays in Elitettan, the second highest division of women's football in Sweden. The club was established in 1939 and the women's division was added in 1974. Sunnanå has played man ...

before going to

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

to play for

FC Minsk FC Minsk () is a Belarusian professional football club based in Minsk. They play in the Belarusian Premier League, the highest tier of Belarusian football. Their colours are red and navy blue. History The club was established in 2006 and was b ...

in the

Belarusian Premier League The Belarusian Premier League (, ''Vyšejšaja Liha'' or ''Vysheyshaya Liga''; ; "Top League"), also called the BETERA Premier League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Belarus and the highest level of the B ...

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

, the Belarusian Women's Cup and the Belarusian Women's Super Cup 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 Football Club (), currently known as Henan F.C. Jiuzu Dukang () for sponsorship reasons, is a Chinese professional football club based in Zhengzhou, Henan, that competes in . Henan plays their home matches at the Hanghai Stadium, located wi ...

, where she signed in 2018. Onome Ebi has made a significant move by joining Naija Ratels FC of

Abuja Abuja (; , ) is the capital city of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, strategically situated at the geographic midpoint of the country within the Federal Capital Territory (Nigeria), Federal Capital Territory (FCT). As the seat of the Federal G ...

for the upcoming 2023-2024 Nigeria Women Football League (NWFL) season, set to kick off on November 15. The veteran footballer , with a remarkable history of six FIFA Women’s World Cups, was officially introduced at a vibrant ceremony in Abuja by the Naija Ratels management. Despite numerous offers from both local and international clubs following her participation in the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, the 40-year-old defender expressed her joy in returning to the local league after more than a decade abroad. Ebi emphasized her deliberate choice of Naija Ratels, citing the club's youthful profile within the league, coupled with impressive organization and discipline.

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 called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...

Tournaments, taking part in the

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

and

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

editions of the

FIFA Women's World Cup The FIFA Women's World Cup is an international association football competition contested by the senior list of women's national association football teams, women's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internationale de Footb ...

and the

2008 Beijing 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 ...

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

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

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 ...

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 ...

and

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

editions of the

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 ...

, winning the tournament four times

)

and

. On 16 June 2023, she was included in the 23-player Nigerian squad for the

FIFA Women's World Cup 2023 The 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup was the ninth edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international women's football championship contested by women's national teams and organised by FIFA. The tournament, which took place from 2 ...

. It was her sixth tournament.

International goals

Honours

; Ataşehir Belediyespor * Turkish Women's First Football League: 2011–12, 2012–13 ; FC Minsk *

* Belarusian Women's Cup: 2014 * Belarusian Women's Super Cup: 2014, 2015 ; Nigeria *

Individual * NFF-Aiteo Female Player Of The Year: 2018 * IFFHS CAF Women's Team of the Decade 2011–2020 * IFFHS All-time Africa Women's Dream Team: 2021

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ebi, Onome 1983 births Living people Footballers from Lagos Nigerian women's footballers 21st-century Nigerian sportswomen 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 for 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 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup players FC Levante Las Planas players Liga F players FIFA Women's Century Club