“Do it, Christina, don’t be afraid!”. The coach’s instructions are sometimes successful in predicting the path of the ball. Sometimes not. On its territory municipal district Drapetsonas, next to the fertilizer, the women’s football team is training in offensive development with side switching to learn how to tire the opponent. But his players LET. pontionteenagers and adults chasing the same ball seem tireless.

Late on Sunday evening, when the second women’s team of the country holds another training session, in the large stadiums of Athens, the men’s teams of the top division compete in the playoffs to packed stands and to the applause of the fans. In contrast, women’s matches are usually watched only by friends and families of team members. The harsh environment is not enough to dampen the spirits of the players, who say they owe football some of the highlights of their lives.

“In women’s football, you become a family. Unlike men’s.” OUR Stephanie, who plays defense, tells K that they don’t have men’s team competition on their teams. Where the strands move are the sports factors. In addition, local league players are not paid other than to cover their away travel. “We’re playing for the jersey.”

“My mom is a soccer player”

Stefania started playing ball at the age of 18, when she came to Athens from the island of Evia to study at the gymnastics academy. Before that, she did not know about the existence of women’s football. Today she is 42 years old, she is the mother of a 19-year-old boy, and despite offers to take over the duties of a coach, she prefers to be in the center of the field. “I don’t feel like I have to stop. I still have 20 years to play ball,” he says.

While raising her son on her own, Stefania worried about her parents holding her child back so he could play away from home. He used to boast that only his mom was a football player at school, but he stopped watching her games when one day he saw her fall and get hit.

Her knees are also bruised Marina, the 31-year-old goalkeeper of the team, although from a family of footballers, remembers the good advice of his mother to take up another sport. “Little girl, you will break your legs,” he told her.

“For many years there has been a myth that some sports are for women and some are for men. I never understood it. Why do I need someone to tell me what I’m going to do with my life, no matter what we talk about. Especially in sports, where everything you do is health,” he says. Marina, who played polo in the past, also started playing ball at the age of 18, and since then her defeats and victories are dressed in the same emotions.

“I will remember this stage. We’ve gone crazy. There are pictures in which we turn into a mess. They pushed me, climbed on top of me. You don’t experience these things again. What are the chances that this will happen to you? talks about how she converted a penalty in the decisive match and became a decisive player in her team’s victory. But when asked about her strongest memories, Marina first describes the defeat. “In Rethymnon, where there was a great game against a much better team than us, we played great defense, our legs were bleeding. We conceded a goal in the last leg and the universe fell apart. We fell, crying. 25 people came on the field to score a goal against us and nothing happened. Matzara from all of them and we ate it. A very powerful moment that, although negative, shapes the player.”

“I tell them we have smaller targets”

In team training Joanna stands out. A fast, dynamic player, with a strong change of direction, a very strong shot and very supportive of her teammates, these are some of the things the coach whispers about. friday sofabefore ordering others to push her.

Johanna played ball alone all day at elementary school in her village in Germany, not far from Hannover. She joined teams from a young age and competed in her country’s local championships before ending up in Greece and AS Ponthion by chance. She stayed and at 24 is their MVP.

“You can have a good day, stand out and help the team,” he says modestly. “I really like that. And helping and standing out. Because that’s also the self-confidence you get from football. Another time you could help another player stand out and say “Wow! That little girl scored a goal! How beautiful!”»

The team of Stephanie, Marina and Johanna brings together a wide range of ages. Stephanie has teammates her son’s age who feel like her kids. “Often I realize that I have become an adult because it annoys me – without showing it – when girls scream, but I am silent, because I used to do that too,” she says.

Although for them football is devoid of gender division, many still ignore women’s competitions. “There is also someone who will say “Come on, are you playing ball? Are there women’s groups? Because everyone seems to think that I play with the boys. That there are no women’s groups,” says Marina. She is asked if she plays in a regular league or even a regular size court. “At first I was annoyed, but over the years I just made fun of them that we couldn’t run as well as the men and that we played on smaller fields,” he says. “That we have smaller goals.”

Forgotten sport

For the players and coaches of their teams, the lack of funding to advertise and promote women’s football makes it a permanent obscurity, although in recent years the big teams now have academies where little girls can learn by practice that boys’ sports don’t exist.

“They went and did a women’s national team friendly on Friday at 12 o’clock in the morning. Working day. Who will go to the stadium on Friday morning to watch the Greek national team? This would never happen in a man’s. They don’t even show games, ”says Marina. “Okay, the women didn’t achieve much at the national championships – the men, of course, also won the European championship, let’s not go too crazy. But in the polo that I know, the girls won the gold medal in the world, they won the Olympic Games, and even today, when the national team plays, they are not even shown on TV. We search the Internet to see which site is found by mistake, somewhere to look at it. In the meantime, the men’s 4th national team is playing, and ERT1 shows it.”

Johanna and Stefania will continue the ball – “Football helps a woman to understand how strong she is as a character. If I can play ball at 42, I can do everything in my life,” Stefania says. Marina, who works in shifts, will be forced to stop because she considers it unfair to miss training in relation to her team. She snorts when she thinks the end is near in front of her gate.

Match, team, thrill of defeat and victory. Women’s football has all this and more, the future.