Meet Adjoa Bayor: A female football star who broke boundaries

As the world celebrates women across the globe, GhanaWeb’s lenses focus on an outstanding female football star who broke boundaries to become a household in women’s football in Ghana.

In a male-dominated sport, Adjoa Bayor who is regarded as one of Ghana’s greatest footballers was able to break the norm to make a name for herself and lay the foundation for more women in the sport.

Raised in Abeka, Accra, Adwoa Bayor, at a very young age found herself playing football barefooted on dusty pitches in her community.

Although it wasn’t usual to find a girl playing football with boys in Ghana, upsetting the odds and creating a footballing brand was unusual but Bayor did just that. She was able to diffuse the norm and societal perception about females with respect to their participation in football.

It was during one of her football matches with the boys in the community that a woman spotted her and led her to join Telecom Ladies, a women’s football team in her area.

The team had players like Alberta Sackey among others who were already in Ghana’s national team, but 10-year-old Bayor was able to find her way to becoming one of the star players in the team.

Bayor’s rise to fame landed in a match against La Ladies where she showcased brilliant performance after coming on as a substitute.

Though she was very young, the footballer was able to juggle her passion along with education and was awarded a scholarship to study in the United States.

While in the States, Bayor earned call-ups to the senior national team and later became the skipper of the Black Queens.

She played for FC Indiana in the United States briefly before returning home to play for her childhood club.

Before the 2007 Women’s World Cup, Bayor was one of the female players selected to play for the World All-Stars against China women’s national football team.

She later captained the Black Queens to the World Cup in China. Bayor scored a remarkable goal from a free-kick just outside Norway’s penalty which got her numerous plaudits from football stars.

After her voyage with the Black Queens at the World Cup, Bayor earned a move to Germany where she signed for FF USV Jena and later moved back to Indiana in the United States before calling time on her career.

Bayor is the second Ghanaian after Alberta Sackey to have won the African Women Footballer of the Year award. She was voted African Women Footballer of the year in 2003 by CAF and also got nominated in 2004, 2006 and 2010.

Since she retired from football, Bayor has been working in the background for Ghana’s national team.

In 2018, she earned an appointment at CAF to assist Deputy Secretary in football and development Anthony Baffoe to conduct the draw for the Africa Women Cup of Nations.

The ex-footballer currently serves as coordinator for Ghana’s four female national teams.

Author: Joseph Adamafio