Shukurat Oladipo has been named the best defender in Serie A Femminile for the 2025-26 season, crowning a campaign in which AS Roma remained unbeaten across all 18 of her appearances, conceded only nine goals with her on the pitch, and claimed their third Italian women’s league title.
Shukurat Oladipo | AS Roma Women | Nigeria (Super Falcons)
Award: Serie A Femminile Best Defender 2025-26
Also: Team of the Season (alongside three Roma teammates)
Season: 18 league appearances | Roma unbeaten in all 18 | 9 goals conceded | 8 clean sheets
Roma achievement: Serie A Femminile title — their 3rd in history
The most compelling argument for Shukurat Oladipo’s Serie A Femminile Best Defender award is not a single standout performance but an entire season of collective defensive certainty. AS Roma did not lose a single league match in which the Super Falcons centre-back appeared, conceded only nine goals with her on the pitch, and kept eight clean sheets across her 18 appearances. That combination of outcomes — for a team playing in Italy’s top flight against the full range of Serie A Femminile opponents — is the statistical signature of a defender who changes the structural character of a backline when she is in it.
Roma’s third Serie A Femminile title is the context that makes the individual award so fitting. Oladipo was not named best defender for a peripheral contribution to a title-winning side. She was a central figure in the defensive unit that made Roma’s title possible, and the award acknowledges both the individual quality she produced and the collective consequence it generated. The Giallorossi conceded fewer goals than any other side in the division across the period she was available, and the unbeaten record in those 18 matches tells its own story about what changes when she plays.
Super Falcons supporters following Oladipo’s recognition alongside the WAFCON preparations can use the Bet9ja women’s football code to engage with all the Super Falcons news as the Senegal friendlies in June and the Morocco tournament in July approach.
The Serie A Femminile Team Of The Season
| Position | Player | Club |
|---|---|---|
| Goalkeeper | Astrid Gilardi | Como Women |
| Defender | Shukurat Oladipo | AS Roma Women |
| Defender | Estela Carbonell | Juventus Women |
| Defender | Ivana Andrés | Inter Milan Women |
| Defender | Caterina Ambrosi | Parma Women |
| Midfielder | Manuela Giugliano | AS Roma Women |
| Midfielder | Giulia Dragoni | AS Roma Women |
| Midfielder | Giada Greggi | AS Roma Women |
| Forward | Tessa Wullaert | Inter Milan Women |
| Forward | Martina Piemonte | Lazio Women |
| Forward | Cecilie Fløe | Napoli Femminile |
Roma dominate the Team of the Season selection with four players in the eleven — Oladipo in defence and Manuela Giugliano, Giulia Dragoni and Giada Greggi occupying all three midfield positions. That level of representation from a single title-winning club reflects both the breadth of Roma’s talent this season and the specific contributions their players made to the voting panel’s assessments. Oladipo’s place among that group is particularly notable as the only non-Italian-national in the Roma quartet, and the only Nigerian in the entire eleven. Readers following the full range of Nigerian women’s football achievements can check the Bet9ja YOHAIG women’s football code for the best current registration offer ahead of the Super Falcons’ June preparations.
Oladipo’s Season At Roma: The Numbers In Context
Eighteen league appearances across a 22-match Serie A Femminile season means Oladipo was available for the vast majority of Roma’s campaign and started a significant proportion of the matches she featured in. The nine goals conceded while she was on the pitch, across 18 games, gives Roma a goals-against average of exactly 0.5 per match in those fixtures — a figure that would rank among the very best defensive records in the women’s game at any top-flight European level for the same period.
The eight clean sheets from 18 appearances means she was involved in more than four in every ten Roma matches without conceding a goal, a rate that reflects a defender whose reading of danger, aerial dominance, and ability to organise those around her produced tangible collective outcomes rather than simply individual statistics. In women’s football, as in the men’s game, a centre-back’s value is measured most accurately not by what shows up in her own data but by what happens to the scoreline when she plays.
What The Award Means For The Super Falcons
Oladipo’s Serie A Femminile Best Defender recognition arrives at a moment when the Super Falcons are building toward their WAFCON title defence in Morocco in July, with the June double-header against Senegal in Ikenne serving as the most immediate preparation. A defender who has just been voted the best in Italy’s top women’s division brings to that preparation a confidence and a club-season rhythm that is difficult to manufacture through training alone.
Her availability for the Senegal friendlies and the Morocco tournament gives head coach Nkechi Obi one of the more reliable individual performers available to the Super Falcons across what will be a physically and tactically demanding month for the squad. WAFCON Group C opponents Malawi, Zambia and Egypt will each present different defensive challenges, and a defender who has just proven her quality against the full range of Serie A Femminile opponents arrives in Morocco with precisely the kind of preparation that tournament football demands. As reported by FootballInNigeria.com.ng, Oladipo’s award adds to a remarkable period of individual recognition for Nigerian players across European club football in the closing weeks of the 2025-26 season — from Okoye’s Udinese Player of the Season in the men’s game to Oladipo’s Serie A Femminile Best Defender in the women’s, Nigerian footballers have been earning the continent’s attention at every level. Fans celebrating her achievement can also use the Bet9ja sport page for the latest offers as the summer WAFCON season approaches.
📌 Did You Know?
- AS Roma Women won their third Serie A Femminile title in the 2025-26 season, following previous championships in 2021-22 and 2023-24. The club has established itself as one of Italian women’s football’s dominant forces since investing heavily in their women’s programme following the success of the men’s team in raising the club’s global profile.
- Manuela Giugliano, one of Oladipo’s Roma teammates in the Team of the Season, is one of the most celebrated Italian women’s footballers of her generation and a consistent presence in international rankings of the world’s best women’s midfielders. Her inclusion alongside Oladipo in the team of the year reflects Roma’s extraordinary midfield depth this season.
- Giulia Dragoni, another Roma midfielder in the Team of the Season, is one of the youngest elite players in the Serie A Femminile and has already attracted significant attention from top clubs across Europe. Her inclusion at such a young age in an eleven dominated by experienced players reflects the extraordinary talent Roma have assembled in their squad.
- Tessa Wullaert, the Inter Milan Women forward in the Team of the Season alongside Oladipo, is a Belgian international who was named the Belgian player of the year multiple times during her career at clubs including Manchester City, Wolfsburg and Anderlecht before joining the Italian top flight. Her inclusion in the eleven reflects the growing quality of foreign recruitment in Serie A Femminile.
- The Serie A Femminile, officially known as Serie A Femminile eBay, is the top tier of women’s football in Italy and has been growing rapidly in terms of broadcast coverage, attendances, and international player recruitment since the Italian Football Federation began investing more significantly in the women’s game after 2018.
- Shukurat Oladipo represents a growing wave of Super Falcons players active in top European women’s leagues, with Nigerian women footballers now competing at the highest club level in Italy, France, England, Germany, Spain, and across Eastern Europe. Oladipo’s Serie A Femminile Best Defender award is the most prestigious individual recognition received by a Nigerian women’s club player in the Italian top flight.
- Roma’s record of remaining unbeaten across all 18 of Oladipo’s appearances is particularly significant because the Serie A Femminile title race was competitive throughout the 2025-26 season, with Juventus Women, Inter Milan Women, and Fiorentina Women all mounting serious challenges. Winning the championship without losing a match in which their best defender played reflects a level of structural consistency that is genuinely difficult to achieve across a full season.
