Uchechi Sunday

Uchechi Lopez Sunday (born 9 September 1994) is a Nigerian professional footballer who plays as a striker for Nojima Stella Kanagawa Sagamihara in Japan's Women's Empowerment League. She wears number 28[2] and is a member of the Nigeria women's national football team, nicknamed the Super Falcons.[3]

Uchechi Sunday
Personal information
Full name Uchechi Lopez Sunday[1]
Date of birth (1994-09-09) 9 September 1994
Place of birth Port Harcourt, Nigeria
Height 1.82 m (6 ft 0 in)[1]
Position(s) Striker
Team information
Current team
 Nojima Stella Kanagawa
Number 28
Youth career
2004–2008 Rivers Angels F.C.
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2009–2010 Rivers Angels F.C.
2011 FC Neunkirch
2011–2015 Rivers Angels F.C.
2015–2017 FC Minsk 7 (7)
2017–2018 Icheon Daekyo
2018–2019 Meizhou Huijun
2019–2021 FC Nordsjælland 3 (0)
2021– Nojima Stella Kanagawa 1 (0)
International career‡
2014 Nigeria U-20 6 (3)
2011– Nigeria 4
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 4 October 2021
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 4 October 2021

Early years

Uchechi Sunday was born in Port Harcourt, Nigeria on 9 September 1994 as the youngest of seven sisters.[4][5]

Career

Club

Sunday began her football career in 2004 with Rivers Angels F.C. in Nigeria. From 2009, she played in their professional team in the Nigerian Women's Premier League. On 14 April 2011, she signed with the Swiss club FC Neunkirch in Schaffhausen. She capped eight times in the Nationalliga B and scored 18 goals.[4][6] In August the same year following the end of the 2010 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup at Germany, she returned to her former club in Nigeria.[7] At the beginning of 2015, Sunday joined the Belarusian team FC Minsk.[3] She scored three goals in the first match with her new club.[8] As end of May 2015, she had 14 goals netted in five matches only.[9][10] She scored her 15th league goal in her 6th appearance on 20 June in the same season.[11]

On 11 August 2015, she debuted in the UEFA Women's Champions League playing in the qualifying round match against Konak Belediyespor from Turkey. She scored five goals in the match, which ended 10–1 for FC Minsk.[2][3] She netted one goal in the second,[12] and two goals in the third match,[13] totaling to eight goals in three matches of the qualifying round.

International

Playing for the Nigeria women's U-20 team, Sunday made her first appearance in a FIFA tournament at the 2010 U-20 World Cup in Germany, entering the Group C match-up against Mexico as a substitute.[14][15] She also took part at the 2014 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup in Canada, where she scored 3 goals in 6 matches.[14] She scored three goals at the second round of the 2014 African U-20 Cup of Nations for Women.[16]

She made her debut at the FIFA Women's World Cup and appeared in three matches of the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup Group A for the Nigeria women's national football team.[17][18][19]

References
  1. "List of Players - Nigeria" (PDF). FIFA. 4 August 2014. p. 14. Retrieved 31 August 2015.
  2. "UEFA Women's Champions League-2016 > Matches-Qualifying round – Konak-Minsk". UEFA. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  3. "Uchechi hits five as Minsk savage Konak Belediyesi". Futball Galore. 11 August 2015. Retrieved 11 August 2015.
  4. Lieske, Matti (25 June 2011). "Schweden sei Dank". Berliner Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  5. "Uchechi Sunday". Kicker (in German). Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  6. "Der große Traum der Sunday Uchechi". Südkurier (in German). 16 June 2011. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  7. "Falconets coach invites 29 players to camp". Punch. 3 March 2012. Archived from the original on 11 December 2013. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  8. SL10 (21 April 2015). "Uchechi Bags Hattrick In Minsk Romp". Soccer Laduma. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  9. "Uchechi Delighted With Minsk's Early Start". SL10. 28 May 2015. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  10. "Goal Machine Uchechi Scores Four, As Ishola And Otuwe Find Form In Massive". All Nigerian Soccer. 28 May 2015. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  11. "Red – hot Uchechi nets 15th league goal". News 24. 24 June 2015. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  12. "Sarajke izgubile od Minska s 3:0". Goal (in Bosnian). 13 August 2015. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
  13. "UWCL: Uchechi at the double as Minsk books second round ticket". Futball Galore. 17 August 2015. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
  14. "Uchechi SUNDAY". Player profile. FIFA.com. Archived from the original on 8 September 2015. Retrieved 9 December 2017.
  15. "FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup Germany 2010, Nigeria - Mexico, 21 Jul 2010". Match Report. FIFA.com. Archived from the original on 24 July 2010. Retrieved 9 December 2017.
  16. "Nigeria 4–0 Tunisia". Futbol 24. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  17. "Nigeria 0–1 France". Shark. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  18. "Germany 1–0 Nigeria". Shark. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  19. "Canada 0–1 Nigeria". Shark. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
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