As we all know, anything can happen in football, especially when opportunities are plentiful. Mavis Owusu is a case in point: the Ghanaian may only be 21, but she already has a great deal of experience outside of her homeland.
The striker featured in the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup™ in Uruguay in 2018 when she was just 14. A few years later, at club level, she took part in the WAFU Zone B qualifiers for the 2022 CAF Women’s Champions League, where she starred for her alma mater, Ampem Darkoa Ladies, managed by her mentor Nana Opoku Fosu Gyeabour ll.
Although her side fell at the last hurdle on that occasion, Owusu captained the Ghanaians to glory in the 2023 preliminaries at the age of 19, securing their spot in the final competition, which she then missed after having earned the opportunity to leave her homeland and try her luck at Al Hilal in Saudi Arabia.
In July 2025, after two seasons in the Arabian Peninsula, she headed for China PR and joined Wuhan Jiangda, who had won the inaugural AFC Women’s Champions League two months earlier.
“I didn’t know anyone here: this is my first time in China,” Owusu told FIFA in an exclusive interview. “The country is so big, and the experience is huge. It’s not easy because they have a different culture, different food. Everything is different, but I think that after five or six months, I’ve managed to adapt. Now it’s good. They are really good people as well; they treat you well.”
As well as discovering a new culture, the Ghana international has also had to adapt to a different style of play at the Asian champions.
“I wasn’t sure how they played [in terms of their tactics] because I was new and their football style was different from mine in some ways,” admits Owusu, whose playing time was initially limited while she found her feet in her new environment. “At first, they were maybe expecting that I could take on many players because they had African footballers previously, but I prefer to use my speed in the depth.
“The more it goes, the better we understand each other. I’ve got an interpreter and I’ve learned patience. I’ve scored my first goals, which has boosted my confidence for upcoming games. I hope to have more games like that. I came to China for that reason.”
Owusu certainly picked the right moment to get off the mark, bagging a brace in a 4-0 win over IR Iran’s Bam Khatoon in the group stage of the 2025/26 AFC Women’s Champions League on 23 November. The Asian title holders are now preparing for the second round of the inaugural FIFA Women’s Champions Cup™, where they will face ASFAR, the Moroccans who have just been crowned African champions, on 14 December.
The Chinese have already safely negotiated the Round One, beating Auckland United 1-0 in October, with Owusu coming on for the last ten minutes.
“I knew we were going to win [against Auckland] as I could see how we were playing, the passes we were making. Even though I don’t understand the language, I understand that when we put energy and unity and team spirit together, we will win. It’ll be hard [against ASFAR] because they’ll be at home, and they’ll have a lot of supporters to intimidate us.
“It’s Africa and I know that Africans love football. They’ll come in numbers and they’ll support their team, but if we use our determination to forget about the supporters or if we imagine they are our supporters, we can make it feel like we are playing in China. I know we’re going to win – we’ve got the right mindset.”
While the Moroccan outfit represent something of an unknown quantity for the African starlet, she is relishing the prospect of testing herself against them and gracing this prestigious stage again.
“I’d be lying if I said I knew ASFAR well. My old team Ampem Darkoa played them in the CAF Women’s Champions League in 2023, but I had already left for Saudi Arabia. We’ll study them because it’ll be new for my club and for me. But when we go there, I’ll be Chinese; I won’t see myself as Ghanaian anymore.”
“It’s a great opportunity to showcase ourselves to the football world. Not everyone gets to play in the FIFA Women’s Champions Cup. It’s a great opportunity for me, for the club and for our African opponents. I hope everyone will give their best. From a personal point of view, I also hope to prove myself because it’s something everyone dreams of. Whether it’s the World Cup, the Africa Cup of Nations or this FIFA tournament, everyone dreams of playing in competitions like these. Wuhan have given me the opportunity to do that, and when I found out I was so happy.”
The winners of the Round Two clash will have the honour of playing European champions Arsenal in the semi-finals of the FIFA Women’s Champions Cup.
“That would be amazing!” concludes an excited Owusu. “Arsenal are one of the best teams in the world, with excellent players. We also have excellent players, but Arsenal’s players are great, experienced players. Some of us look up to them. Coming from my small village in Ghana, via Saudi Arabia and China, I would be so happy to play against Arsenal; it would be a dream come true. But for that dream to come true for me and the young Chinese players in Wuhan, we have to win the match in Morocco [against ASFAR].”
One thing is certain: dreams can quickly come true in football, as Mavis Owusu has already proven.
