TeamViewer Trending: World Sevens star Simi
Manchester United banked nearly £750,000 in prize money at May’s inaugural World Sevens tournament – a sum significant for being higher than the pot received by the respective winners of this season’s Women’s Super League, FA Cup and Champions League – but to one Red in particular, the competition was invaluable.
Awujo collected the trophy in front of her team-mates no more than an hour after scoring the opening goal of the final, in which we narrowly beaten by Bayern Munich, and a day after netting her first (unofficial) goals for the club with a brace in the group-stage triumph over Benfica.
A converted penalty in the shootout victory against Paris Saint-Germain came in between, but Simi’s displays were about more than just finding the net; they showcased her athleticism, power, skill, technique and, perhaps most notably, her potential.
At 21, she’s just completed her first season at United, having made the step up to the professional game last summer from the University of Southern California’s collegiate soccer programme. It’s a sizeable gap to bridge in terms of the pace of the play, but Simi’s been carefully eased in bit by bit, brought up to speed with five starts and 17 total appearances in a formative year one.
After the summer break, she’ll be ready to take the next step, and her Sevens experience is sure to be fresh in the mind as she returns to Carrington for pre-season training. Sure, the games were a totally different format to the normal 11-a-side parameters, but the confidence our no.13 will have garnered is transferrable and that is not to be underestimated...
STAND-OUT MOMENT
Simi helped United to down AS Roma in game one, but it was her two-goal performance in our second match against Benfica that really set her confidence flowing. You could say it was the catalyst to her award-winning tournament.
After Celin Bizet had put us 1-0 up, Awujo looked overjoyed to have doubled the lead with a cool finish before half-time, but it was the midfielder’s second goal in the latter of the 15-minute halves that really stood out.
Our opponents attempted a clever corner routine, but when the initial centred delivery was unintentionally left for our no.13 to intercept, she showed the intuition to launch a devastating counter-attack.
Without taking a touch to set the ball and consider her options, Simi intently reversed it into the path of Melvine Malard and, after getting possession back in a one-two, got it out of her feet and blasted away from the crowded penalty area of players that had assembled for the corner.
The 21-year-old burst through the middle of the park and, while Malard had matched her pace to offer a passing option on the right, the French forward’s help wasn’t needed. Awujo showed the intelligence to shift the ball onto her weaker left foot, away from a covering defender that briefly occupied the former’s run, and power a low finish beyond the goalkeeper upon reaching the edge of the opposite penalty box. It was a goal of real quality.
Speaking during the tournament, Simi attributed her and the team’s success to two primary things: adaptation and enjoyment.
The midfielder admitted it was initially a challenge to shake off 11-a-side habits at a competition where there were plenty of nuances – including no offsides and unlimited rolling substitutions – but says United sought to do it from our first game against Roma, while still trying to carry over the basic principles of our dynamic every-week style.
“We’re all so used to playing 11-a-side where there’s the rules and the offsides. When you build those habits for so long, it’s so hard to just turn it off,” she explained to official broadcaster DAZN, before picking up her first Player of the Match award of the tournament after the Benfica clash.
“We’ve looked at it a lot, assessing the rules and seeing how we can still bring our style but be able to adjust to what sevens calls for. Also, recognising stretching the field and staying offside! That’s been a lot of fun to do on the pitch because it’s so much smaller. I think when you can find that [enjoyment], it just makes you want to do everything so much more 100 per cent.”
Awujo clearly thrived in the pressure-free environment, with her box-to-box buccaneering style a match for the tournament’s athletically fast-paced demands. We know she’s a quick adapter too, having gone about making the transition from college to professional football this season.
“You got forward, but you were everywhere,” former WSL forward Courtney Sweetman-Kirk told our no.13 after her second Player of the Match-winning display, in the semi-final victory over Man City. “You were making blocks, you were making tackles, you were driving forward, you were having shots too.”
SIMI SAID
“It [the World Sevens tournament] goes to why a lot of us started this sport in the first place. It’s because we enjoy it, we have a lot of fun doing it. Being in this format almost takes us to those youth days where things may not have been as competitive or there might not have been as much pressure. There’s that element of fun we can have but obviously we’re all professionals, we do this as our jobs, so we bring that element as well.”
“For Simi, I project really good things, she’s just got to get up to speed,” Skinner told journalists during a press conference in September, shortly after Awujo made her United debut. “We’re doing extras with her… it’s just about getting up to speed of how quickly the ball’s coming from college. I feel that she’ll be ready, and I think you’re going to see an incredible footballer. You’re going to be really excited to watch her play.”
Simi studied computer science and business at the University of Southern California and continued to work on her degree remotely while playing for United in 2024/25.