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Kenya international Marjolene Nekesa finished 22nd in the IFFHS Women’s World Goal Scorers’ Award won by Malawian player Temwa Chawinga.

According to the statistics released by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS), the 25-year-old Nekesa notched a total of 26 goals for both her Czech Republic outfit Slavia Prague and Kenya’s women’s national team Harambee Starlets.

Her goal return was 37 shy of winner Chawinga, who banged in 63 goals for her Chinese club Wuhan, and Malawi women’s national team. Nekesa managed 19 for the club in the national league, scored three in the Czech National Cup, scored another three in the Czech Women’s FA Cup, and one for Harambee Starlets.

Nekesa, who grew up in Kitale, attended Butere Girls High School before moving to the United States to attend Oklahoma Wesleyan University, where she majored in sports management and scored 25 goals as a freshman. In 2022, Nekesa signed for Belarusian side Minsk, where she debuted and scored her first goal for the club during the Belarusian Women’s Super-Cup final. However, she made her breakthrough at the end of 2022 after she signed for Slavia Prague, where she played in the UEFA Women’s Champions League and became the first Kenyan women’s player to play in the Czech Republic.

Chinese outfit

She was the top scorer of the 2022-23 Czech Women’s First League with fourteen goals and was handed her first call-up to Harambee Starlets for the 2018 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations held in Ghana. Nekesa’s goal-scoring prowess saw her finish seven places below Nigeria forward Asisat Oshoala, who turns out for FC Barcelona in Spain. Oshola managed 28 goals while Zambia’s Barbra Banda came eighth having scored 31 goals for Chinese outfit Shangai.

Harambee Stars striker Michael Olunga was also ranked 22nd in the men’s category having scored a total of 35 goals for both Qatari outfit Al Duhail and Kenya and stayed 19 goals shy of leading scorer Cristiano Ronaldo, who managed 54 for Saudi Pro League side Al Nassr and the Portuguese national team. Meanwhile, Spanish World Cup-winning footballer Jenni Hermoso has testified to a Madrid court that a kiss from former football federation president Luis Rubiales was “not consensual”. He grabbed Ms Hermoso by the head and kissed her on the lips after the World Cup final last year.