Michelle Alozie Nigeria international and full-back for Houston Dash has been included on the shortlist for the 2025 FIFPRO Women’s World 11, recognising her outstanding efforts over the last season.
She is one of only three African players nominated, joining Ghizlane Chebbak of Morocco and Barbra Banda of Zambia. Alozie’s inclusion comes on the back of a breakout 2024-25 campaign, during which she established herself as a key figure.
More than 26,000 professional footballers from 68 countries cast votes to select the players they deemed worthy of inclusion in the Team of the Year. To qualify for the shortlist, players must have featured in at least 20 official matches between 11 August 2024 and 3 August 2025.
Alozie played a decisive role in Nigeria’s triumph at the 2024 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations, scoring a dramatic stoppage-time winning goal against South Africa in the semi-finals. She was also named among four Nigerian players selected in the tournament’s official Team of the Tournament.
The final Women’s World 11 will include one goalkeeper, three defenders, three midfielders, and three forwards; an additional outfield spot will go to the player receiving the next highest number of votes. The winners are set to be announced on Monday, 3 November 2025 via FIFPRO’s digital platforms.
Editorial
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In football’s evolving global constellation, where the old guard of Europe and North America must now make room for fresh constellations across Africa, Asia and Latin America, Michelle Alozie’s emergence lights up a compelling narrative. With conviction, she has stepped out of the shadows of expectation to stake her claim among the world’s elite.
Quietly but inexorably, the Houston Dash full-back has delivered a season of substance. Her stoppage-time strike in the semi-final of the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations was not just a moment of individual brilliance: it encapsulated a wider shift in the game where defenders are no longer solely custodians but creators, where women’s football in Africa demands frontline recognition, not footnotes. By advancing into the shortlist for the FIFPRO Women’s World 11, she symbolises this shift.
In the grand tapestry of women’s football history, this is no trivial footnote. Think back to the pioneers whose names now resonate the trailblazers who scouted the horizon and dared to sprint beyond it. Alozie now stands in that company. Yet her achievement is not merely about personal accolade. It’s about opening doors for others who look to Nigeria, to Africa, and see representation, ambition and the possibility of global distinction.
Tactically, her rise is equally worthy of note. Operating at full-back, she merges defensive discipline with attacking impetus a hallmark of modern football’s best practitioners. In a world where the 4-2-3-1 has given way to hybrid systems, where full-backs morph into wing-backs, where overlaps and underlaps define width and depth — Alozie adapts. She defends tenaciously, but she also ventures forward, times her runs, picks the space, contributes to the rhythm of attack. In that sense, her game is a manifestation of the incremental tactical evolution of women’s football.
But perhaps most compelling is what her story represents. From her roots to the global arena, it is a testament to perseverance, ambition and the widening horizons of the game. For Nigeria and African football, such recognition is not a novelty but every time it happens, it signals progress. It reminds us: talent knows no geography. Opportunity knows no border.
On 3 November, when FIFPRO reveal the final eleven, fans will look beyond just names and numbers. They will scan for symbols: players who carry their nation’s hopes, who articulate their sport’s future. Michelle Alozie may well be one of them. And if she is, it will not be a surprise rather, it will be the quiet confirmation of what we already suspected: that she was ready.
Did You Know?
- The Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) was first held in 1991, and Nigeria’s national side, the Super Falcons, have won it 11 times as of 2025.
- The first ever FIFPRO Women’s World 11 was announced in 2019, marking a milestone in recognising elite women’s footballers globally.
- Michelle Alozie originally played college football in the United States at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga before turning professional.
- The voting for the FIFPRO Women’s World 11 is open to all professional footballers worldwide making it one of the most democratic accolades in the sport.
- In the history of the Houston Dash, no Nigerian female player had previously been shortlisted for the FIFPRO Women’s World 11 prior to Alozie’s nomination.
