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“We make football as normal for girls as it is for boys”

GironaIn Saudi Arabia they are in a hurry. Logical, if you consider that for decades the country has been stagnant in terms of gender normalization. In a short time and tired of not having a voice, the Saudi women have gone from not being able to enter the stadiums to having their own Women’s League, of which the first edition has just been held. From being in the shadows, cornered and without a presence, for the first time they enjoy a selection that is not male: they made their debut in February defeating the Seychelles Islands. This summer, a delegation of women from the Football Federation have seen first-hand how Girona, Barça and Espanyol work. They have set their eyes on Catalonia to learn.

The stay, organized by the company MBP School, responsible for making specific programs for technical bodies around the world, took place at the beginning of August. The Saudi Arabian Football Federation, in the women’s section, is starting from scratch and has to absorb all possible knowledge to make a tailor-made picture with which to start building its own project. In Girona, the coaches spent an entire afternoon there. “They were very interested in discovering how they could reach the height of what a club like ours is today. “How do we have to work to have all this?”, they asked us, says Roser Sánchez, team manager of the Girona women’s first team, which competes in Preferent.

It’s all part of a strategy devised by one of the few Arab countries that didn’t have a women’s football team and that, suddenly, would be happy to play in World Cups. They strive to develop female coaches, referees and players. And to wash the image, clear. “I hope women’s football advances in Saudi Arabia and women can play abroad, as it happens in men’s teams. God willing, we will represent our country as women in other countries do. Then football will it will become something as normal for girls as for boys,” said Seba Rabea Tawfiq, a player of the Jeddah Eagles, one of the semifinalists of the first League, made up of 16 teams, a few months ago. In the implementation of the championship, by the way, there is the hand of the Spanish Football Federation, since this was one of the agreements to bring the men’s Spanish Super Cup to Saudi Arabia.

The same treatment for boys and girls

During the visit to Girona, they were able to tour the facilities of a club that has been promoted to the First Division and this Friday plays against Valladolid (9 p.m., DAZN) and they received a talk about the methodology and characteristics of football that the club practice, proven in the training camps. What struck them the most was the way in which the boys and girls of the first teams are treated: except in the economic section there is no difference. “We feel that form part of, they don’t have us isolated. Montilivi has hosted our matches, we have visited hospitals and schools, we have the freedom to access any of the resources that men have, in terms of nutrition or to have the doctor visit us,” says Sánchez.

Every step counts. “This year we wear women’s kit, for the first time. And it’s 2022, huh? Puma gives us boots, we do photo shoots… the girls in Saudi Arabia were amazing. They saw everything as very accessible and that’s because it really is.” To progress, however, one must first flirt with the limits of wear. “You can’t stop opening doors, desire overcomes any obstacle.” In women’s football, nothing is immediate. “Maybe an idea stays in the drawer for five years, but we have to be ready for when the time comes to open it. We have to surround ourselves with people who add up, who know how to turn things around,” he adds.

Maria Teixidor, ex-director of Barça present at the meeting, also spoke to the coaches of the Saudi Arabian Federation and focused on the professionalization of the project. He speaks with ownership: When he joined the club, the coaching staff of the women’s first team consisted of three people. Well, he left with 22 and there is a Champions League in the museum. “Girls who want to play soccer have to dream big,” says Lamia Bahian, the director of women’s soccer in Saudi Arabia, a country trying to make up for lost time.

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