Veteran Lionesses attacker, Henriette Akaba, joins Saudi club.

The Saudi team confirmed the arrival of the 34-year-old on Tuesday, September 15, days after hinting its followers about the signing by dropping a puzzling post on its official Instagram page.

The club on the earlier Instagram post where it hinted about its success in securing the signature of the Cameroonian, described the forward as “a player with the spirit of a Lion.”

“Her presence commands respect. And on the pitch, she never backs down,” the outfit further stated. It accompanied the post with a split-face portrait of the striker’s face merged with that of a Lion. 

Akaba is expected to serve as a key figure in the execution of the club’s ambitious plans for the forthcoming season.

Al-Hmmah Sport Club is aiming to qualify for Saudi women’s first division football championship, the Saudi Women’s Premier League, at the end of the 2026/2027 campaign.

Former Amazone FAP of Yaounde-trained Akaba is rated as a player with the right profile that the club needs in hitting the ambitious target which it missed out on last season by a very slim margin.

Al-Hmmah Sport Club finished the 2025/2026 season sitting fourth on the final standing of the Saudi women’s second division championship dubbed the Saudi Women’s First Division League. 

The team totaled 25points to complete the campaign counting just four points fewer than Al Taraji women which topped the standing with 29points and qualified for the topflight championship.

Akaba is widely regarded as one of the finest women footballers that the African continent has ever produced. The attacker who began her professional career at Lorient Football Club in Yaounde in 2008 has played professional football for multiple clubs across the globe, securing multiple individual and team awards.

The forward notably competed in elite women’s club football competitions like the European Women’s Champions League during her time with the likes of Russia’s FC Energy Voronezh and Ataşehir Belediyesi of Turkiye. 

In Cameroon, the striker is rated as one of the biggest trailblazers of the senior women’s national football team which finally secured its first continental distinction last month when it bagged the winner’s trophy of the 2026 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations.

Akaba represented the Indomitable Lionesses during the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in the United Kingdom where the senior women’s national football team made its first ever appearance in a global competition.

Three years later, she represented Cameroon at the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Canada in a tournament that saw the Indomitable Lionesses making their debut in the biggest competition in international women’s football. 

The forward returned with the team four years later to star with the Indomitable Lionesses at the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup in France where Cameroon repeated the feat that it achieved in the 2015 tournament by reaching the second round of the showpiece.

At the regional level, the striker who counts 66 appearances for Cameroon, played two successive finals of the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations with Cameroon in 2014 and 2016. She was also an active member of the team that placed third in the 2018 edition of the same competition. 

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3912 of Thursday September 17, 2026