When the scout knocked on the door of Josephine Chukwunonye’s one-room home in Lagos, Nigeria, her father told him to leave. But Josephine (aka Alinco) pleaded – “Dad, if you don’t let me play, I will die” – until her father gave in. When she told her mother that one day she would use her soccer earnings to build her family a house, her mother laughed: “Child, that doesn’t happen for girls.” But Alinco kept dreaming anyway: at night, sleeping on the floor with her six family members beside her, she thought to herself, “One day I will change our lives.” This is the story of Alinco – and a Nigerian professional league that allows women to change the fates of their families.

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