Roosa Funmilayo Ariyo (born 13 June 1994) is a Finnish-born 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 forward for

KuPS Kuopion Palloseura, commonly referred to as KuPS, is a Finnish professional football club based in Kuopio. KuPS competes in Veikkausliiga, the top flight of Finnish football. The team plays its home matches at Kuopio Football Stadium. KuPS ha ...

and the Nigeria women's national team.

Early life

Ariyo was raised in

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

and

Espoo Espoo (, ; ) is a city in Finland. It is located to the west of the capital, Helsinki, in southern Uusimaa. The population is approximately . It is the most populous Municipalities of Finland, municipality in Finland. Espoo is part of the Helsi ...

. Her father is Yoruba from

Kogi State Kogi State is a States of Nigeria, state in the North Central Nigeria, North Central region of Nigeria, bordered to the west by the states of Ekiti State, Ekiti and Kwara State, Kwara, to the north by the Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria, Fe ...

, Nigeria, and her mother is Finnish. She holds both Finnish and Nigerian citizenship.

College career

Ariyo has attended the

Monroe Community College Monroe Community College (MCC) is a public community college in Monroe County, New York. It is part of the State University of New York. The college has two campuses; the main campus in the town of Brighton, and the Downtown Campus in the City ...

and the

University of Bridgeport The University of Bridgeport (UB or UBPT) is a private university in Bridgeport, Connecticut, United States. The university is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education. In 2021, the university was purchased by Goodwin Unive ...

in the United States.

Club career

Honka

Ariyo made her league debut against United Pietarsaari on 9 July 2011. She scored her first league goal against

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 ...

on 14 August 2013, scoring in the 88th minute.

Jitex

Ariyo made her league debut against QBIK on 12 April 2015.

TiPS

Ariyo made her league debut against Åland United on 23 March 2019. She scored her first league goals against IK Myran on 20 April 2019, scoring in the 18th and 34th minute.

UDG Tenerife

On 30 June 2021, Ariyo was announced at UDG Tenerife. She made her league debut against

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

on 4 September 2021.

Real Betis

Ariyo was announced at Real Betis.

Club YLA

On 30 June 2022, Ariyo was announced at Club YLA.

KuPS

On 4 August 2023, Ariyo was announced at KuPS. She made her league debut against HJK on 8 August 2023. Ariyo scored her first league goal against Åland United on 12 August 2023, scoring in the 62nd minute. She won the August 2023 Best Player award in September 2023. Ariyo scored against

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

on 4 September 2024 in the

UEFA Women's Champions League The UEFA Women's Champions League, previously called the UEFA Women's Cup (2001–2009), is a European women's association football competition. It involves the top club teams from countries affiliated with the European governing body UEFA. ...

, scoring in the 18th minute.

International career

Ariyo made her senior debut for Nigeria on 10 June 2021 in a 0–1 friendly loss to

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

References

External links