Position: Forward
Birthday: June 20, 1997
Hometown: Abia, Nigeria
Height: 5-foot-8
Pronunciation: Uchenna Kanu
Previous Team: Tigres UANL (Mexico)
2024: Despite missing the last two months of the season with a knee injury, Kanu made 12 appearances, including 10 starts for the club. She scored five times, setting a new NWSL record for fastest brace (six minutes) in the club’s March 30 draw with the Portland Thorns.
2023: Started seven of her 19 appearances for Racing Louisville in 2023. Her first club goal came on May 31 against Chicago Red Stars in the Challenge Cup.
Before Racing Louisville: Kanu joins Racing after a stellar year at Tigres, where she rang up 20 goals in 30 appearances for the Monterey, Mexico-based club, helping her team claim Liga MX Femenil’s Torneo Apertura trophy this past November.
Before her time in Mexico, Kanu impressed in Sweden’s Damallsvenskan, tallying 22 goals in 42 matches over two years with Linköpings FC. Kanu’s 17 scores in the 2021 season ranked second in the league. She also spent part of the pandemic-impacted 2019-20 season in Spain with Sevilla FC, making six appearances for the Spanish club.
International: Kanu has represented Nigeria at the highest level internationally, including the 2019 and 2023 World Cups. At the 2023 World Cup, Kanu started three matches and appeared in a fourth for Nigeria, scoring a goal in the group stage against co-hosts Australia on the way to a round of 16 appearance.
In 2024, she was named to the Nigeria’s Olympic roster where the team was eliminated following the group stage.
