Bombata Bisola Mumunat was crying for a football at three years old. Now the Sharp Striker FC central defender is training twice a day, studying the trivela, and setting her sights on the WAFA League and beyond.
Her mother told her the story. At three years old, Bombata Bisola Mumunat would burst into tears the moment a football appeared in front of her, reaching for it before she had the words to explain why. “I believe I was born with the gift,” she told FootballInNigeria.com.ng in an exclusive interview. It is hard to argue otherwise.
Now a defender with Sharp Striker Football Club in Ikotun, Lagos, Bisola is building that gift deliberately and quietly. Twice-a-day training. Weekend friendlies. A personal focus on mastering the trivela pass, both short and long range, because she refuses to be a one-dimensional defender. She knows what she wants and she knows the work it takes to get there.
Nigerian football fans who want to back the women’s game and enjoy the Bet9ja experience can start with the YOHAIG promo code before registering on the platform.
Boys Were the First Classroom
Between the ages of nine and ten, Bisola’s development happened on pitches where she was often the only girl. She played with boys, absorbed their physicality and directness, and came out the other side with a confidence that coaches often spend years trying to install in young defenders. That early experience, she says, shaped everything.
She is a natural central full-back, drawn to the defensive art that most young players avoid. “I love heading the ball and dealing with crosses, even though I’m not the tallest,” she said. That self-awareness is telling. She is not pretending to be something she is not. She is building on what she actually is, which is a defender who likes to fight for every ball in the air.
Fans who follow domestic Nigerian women’s football and want to engage with Bet9ja can learn more about getting started through the Bet9ja promo code explained page before placing their first stake.
Oshoala Is the Standard, Not the Ceiling
Asisat Oshoala is her role model. But the way Bisola explains that choice says more about her than it does about the Super Falcons captain. She does not worship Oshoala the striker. She studies Oshoala the professional. “If I can learn something from you on or off the pitch, then you are my role model,” she said. That definition stretches wide enough to include anyone worth watching.
There is a personal dimension to all of this too. Bisola’s mother had football dreams of her own that never materialised. Bisola carries that history with her onto every pitch, and the weight of it does not slow her down. It pushes her. “I believe I will make it. I belong on the pitch,” she said. Those are not the words of someone hoping things work out. They are the words of someone with a plan.
For Super Falcons supporters backing Nigerian women’s football this season, the Bet9ja’s current promo code is available for anyone yet to register on Bet9ja ahead of upcoming matches.
The Ikeja Divisional League and What Comes Next
Right now, Bisola’s stage is the Ikeja Divisional League. She is proud of it. Competing there is not a consolation prize in her mind; it is a launching pad. Her stated target is the WAFA League, the Nigeria Women Football League’s top flight, and the focused daily training tells you she is not treating that as a distant dream.
Sharp Striker FC in Ikotun might not be a household name yet. But Bombata Bisola Mumunat is putting in the work that makes household names. The trivela sessions, the morning gym, the evening pitch sessions, the weekend friendlies. She trains almost every day. That is what belief looks like when it has a schedule attached to it.
📌 Did You Know?
- Asisat Oshoala, Bisola’s role model, became the first African player, male or female, to win a UEFA Women’s Champions League title when she helped Barcelona Femeni lift the trophy in 2021 against Chelsea Women.
- The trivela, the technique Bisola is working on, involves striking the ball with the outside of the foot to create a curling pass or shot. Portuguese legend Ricardo Quaresma is most associated with popularising the skill at the highest level of men’s football.
- The Nigeria Women Football League (NWFL) Premiership, the top tier Bisola is targeting, was formerly known as the Women’s Premier League and was restructured in 2020 to create a more professional competition framework across Nigeria’s football pyramid.
- Playing with boys as a young girl is a common thread among many of Nigeria’s most celebrated female footballers, including Oshoala herself, who played extensively in informal mixed games growing up in Shomolu, Lagos.
- Ikotun, the Lagos suburb where Sharp Striker FC is based, sits in the Alimosho Local Government Area, home to one of the densest populations of active grassroots football clubs in Lagos State, making it a genuine breeding ground for local talent.
- The Ikeja Divisional League, where Bisola competes, operates as a feeder competition within the Lagos football pyramid. Several players who have eventually reached the NWFL Premiership began their careers in divisional football across Lagos.
- Research on women footballers in West Africa consistently shows that players who train in mixed-gender environments during early childhood develop significantly stronger technical foundations than those restricted to single-gender development structures from the start.
