Meet One of Nigeria's most Educated Female Footballer With First Class Degree

Until recently, footballers used to be seen as school dropouts and never-do-well students in school. But today, the achievements of many footballers in education have shown that you can be a professional footballer and also be highly educated person.

One of Nigeria's professional footballer who is also highly educated is Super Falcons star, Ini Abasi Umotong. She was in Nigeria’s team that crashed out of the group stages in the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Canada.



Umotong who is 25 was born on 15 May 1994 Calabar. She is 1.74 m (5 ft 8 1⁄2 in). Her Playing position is Forward. She currently plays for Brighton & Hove Albion in England. Her jersey number is 9. For Nigeria, she wears jersey number 11.

Umotong was born to the family of Dr Ben Anefiok and Grace Umotong of Ikono in Akwa Ibom State. She is the youngest of six siblings. She moved to Birmingham, England with her family when she was one year old.


According to Wikipedia, the young Umotong started playing football at the tender age of five when she was in Primary school. In 2003, she was spotted by Birmingham City. She later attended King Edward VI Five Ways School.

Umotong's first call up to the Super Falcons was in February, 2015. She was invited to join the Super Falcons by coach Edwin Okon in preparation for the 11th All-Africa Games. She also participated in 2016 Olympic Games qualifiers and the 7th FIFA Women’s World Cup finals.

Umotong's first goal for Nigeria as a Super Falcons player was scored in January 2019 at the Four Nations Tournament in China. She came from the substitute's bench to register the final goal in a 4–1 win over Romania.

Her (2014–15) first season at Portsmouth opened the path for Umotong's international career. Her goal scoring exploits led the FA Women's Premier League Southern Division side to win their seventh successive Hampshire County Cupand the league title.

With 29 goals in 25 league and cup matches, Umotong emerged top goal scorer for Pompey.

Umotong left Portsmouth for FA WSL 2 club Oxford United in February 2016. She scored 25 goals for Portsmouth during the first part of 2015–16. She finished as FA WSL 2 top-goalscorer with 13 goals in 19 appearances, before adding four goals in seven appearances in the FA WSL Spring Series.

In July 2017, Umotong joined Brighton & Hove Albion on a transfer. She scored 8 league goals to help the Seagulls finish second in the re-branded second tier (now known as the FA Women's Championship).

Before joining Brighton as a full-time footballer, Umotong combined her football career with her studies for an Economics degree at the University of Southampton. She graduated from the University with a first class honour in Economics and Actuarial Science in 2017.