Nigerian football analyst, Isah Muazu, has questioned Asisat Oshoala’s decision to move to China so early in her career while the NFF have said if they’d known, they would have offered advice.

The former Arsenal forward left to join Chinese side, Dalian Quanjian despite denying rumours that she was set for China due to the poor money she felt she received at Arsenal.

“I still can’t explain that move, it was so sudden,” Muazu told the Daily Trust in Ashoala’s homeland. “Money shouldn’t be everything in life, I believe her impact would have been bigger assuming she stayed in Europe.” 

Idris Shuaibu, another anaylst at the paper, added “In my opinion, she was the first Nigerian  female player I felt could rival any other star in the world in terms of talent and composure, I just can’t explain why she chose to go hide herself in China so early in her career.” 

Chairman of the Technical Committee for the Nigerian Football Federation, NFF, Chris Green, also said, “We may not know why she went there. Oshoala has her manager and people working around her. At this level, the players do things on their own. But as I said, we don’t have a pre-knowledge about her movement to China.” He added that the Federation would have offered advice had they been aware of the move before it happened.

“I know that the game of women’s football is also strong in China,” Green continued, “but I don’t really know much about the strength of their league. hat we can only say now is to wish Oshoala the best of luck in China.”

The move certainly was a strange one with the player pictured in China long before any announcement was forthcoming. When it finally came, it was the Chinese who broke the news.

Arsenal, as always, made it officially official long after everybody already knew.