10 facts about Eniola Aluko, first black woman to own Italian football team

Eniola Aluko is a British-Nigerian professional footballer that represented the England squad for years. After she retired from football, Aluko decided to pursue a career in football broadcasting. She recently acquired an ownership stake in Italian club, FC Como.

Aside from her recent giant stride that made the news, there are many other things you probably didn’t know about Eniola. Let’s discuss those facts below:

Eniola was born in Lagos to Gbenga and Sileola Aluko. She left Nigeria for Birmingham, England at 6 months old. The Lagos-born studied Law at the University of Brunel and graduated in 2008. She trained at Lee & Thompson. Aluko released her autobiography, titled ‘They don’t teach these lessons in the game of life’ in 2019. Eniola started her career at Leafield Athletic Ladies, then proceeded to Birmingham City Ladies’ youth team. At the age of 15, she played for Birmingham in the Women’s Premier League Cup Final on 7 April, 2002. She was declared the Wayne Rooney of Women’s football after her incredible performance at the Premier League season from 2002 to 2003. Eniola Aluko was named the Young Player of the Year at the Women’s Football Awards in 2003. After playing for Birmingham, she joined Charlton Athletic in 2004. Aluko helped the team at the finals by defeating Fulham to win the Women’s Premier League Cup in 2004 at Underhill Stadium. She was very instrumental to St.Louis Athletica triumph — from the last place to the second position at the end of the league in 2008. This was responsible for why she was named a post-draft discovery player by Athletica. She participated at the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2007, representing England. For 2015, she scored 13 goals to emerge top scorer. Aluko played tremendously for Chelsea and Juventus between 2012 to 2019. Aluko retired from professional football in 2020. Afterwards, she became the director for women’s football at Aston Villa. In 2021, she became director of Angel City FC, Los Angeles ahead of their inaugural season at the American National Women’s Soccer League. She was the first woman to appear as a commentator on BBC’s football programme, Match of the Day. She also provided commentary for Fox Sport’ coverage of the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup.Related PostsBook review: An author’s football walkabouts on FacebookPalmPay, BetKing announce brand partnership with rewards, discounts for football fansGovernments urged to promote football academy, develop sports talents

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