Freda Ayisi

Freda Ayisi (born 21 October 1994) is a Ghanaian footballer. She has played for Lewes WFC, Birmingham WFC in the 2017 FA Women's Cup final and Arsenal when they won the 2014 FA Women's Cup Final. In 2022 she became a player for Charlton Athletic Football Club

Life
Ayisi was born in Ghana in 1994.

Ayisi began playing football at Arsenal where in her first season she scored against FC Kairat in the Champions league. She later said that this was the highlight of her time with "the gunners". She was with Arsenal when they won the 2013–14 FA Cup but was mostly a sub in the match where they won 2–0 over Everton.

In 2014 she moved for the first time to Birmingham City where over the next three years she played in 57 matches. In March 2015, Manchester City goalkeeper Karen Bardsley was given a three-match ban for violent conduct in a goalless draw with Birmingham City, after she had a fight with Ayisi. Ayisi was expelled from the match immediately by the referee. Bardsley later said, "Passions ran high against Birmingham. Viewing the footage again, I regret the incident with Freda Ayisi. Whilst I was provoked, it was out of character for me to react in that way."

In the same year Ayisi scored against Sunderland when Birmingham were facing relegation. However Sunderland scored an equaliser. In 2017 she was playing at Wembley Stadium in the 2017 FA Women's Cup final representing Birmingham against Manchester City.

In August 2018 she and Melissa Johnson joined Leicester City for the 2018–19 season. before Ayisi joined the London City Lionesses.

She played for Lewes from 2021. The Athletic compared Ayisi to Dimitar Berbatov based on her videos which include gaining control of a ball thrown from a fourth storey window. Ayisi liked that one as it was popular and gained an endorsement from pundit Ian Wright.

Ayisi joined Charlton in 2022. In May 2023 she met Nora Häuptle who had recently taken the job of managing the Ghana women's national football team. Häuptle noted that Ayisi played well for the team scoring Charlton's only goal in a draw against Crystal Palace.

Ayisi's TikTok videos have found her 560,000 followers. In 2023 she will be involved with Soccer Aid and she was chosen as a "pro-baller" to join pundit Jermain Defoe, former footballer and content creator Moses Duckrell and DJ/footballer Monki to endorse marketing by Jameson Irish Whiskey to five-a-side players.

In February 2024 she played in her first international match for Ghana as they competed against Zambia. She was replaced by Gifty Assifuah in the next match which they lost.