2006-Switzerland

I really do love soccer. But I guess some people just don’t understand this… I’m young but I still face acts of sexism in this sport. Of course not huge ones, I’m not old enough for that to happen. But for example, in 2006 I went to a camp in Switzerland. I was in free time with some of my friends just sitting around campus. Of course my friends had similarities with me; and one of them was our passion for soccer (or at least they said so). So we decided to go to the soccer field to play a while. When we got there, some of the boys were playing; I didn’t see a problem, so I just kept walking toward the field. But the rest of my friends, I’m guessing because of their culture, stopped when they saw the boys. I just kept on walking, with them staying about three meters behind me. I asked a guy who was standing next to the byline, ready to come in, if we could play. I will never forget the way he looked at me. His face stared down at me as if he was trying to intimidate me, but at the same time he looked at me as if I knew what I was doing. I guess he was just in a state of shock. I was just confused at his reaction. The only thought that was passing through my head was, “Is that so unbelievable? A girl, ME, playing soccer?”. I actually found this kind of rude; deep inside my feelings were hurt. But my reactions to this, was anger. I just couldn’t believe his reaction. But then I realized I was used to a different culture, so I just tried talking through to him, but I soon realized, this, was impossible. He stared at me with that look and said “WHAT?!”. So I repeated to him, “May I play?” He made that look again; it was really getting on my nerves. The guy chuckled, “I’m sorry, girls don’t play soccer”. When he said this, my anger turned into rage. HOW COULD HE HAVE SAID THAT TO ME!? So I just answered, “Excuse me, but YES they do”. He laughed again. I could feel the blood flowing into my head, making my face red, with anger. “I play soccer,” I said trying to emphasize that by slightly raising my voice. He just responded, “Girls DON’T play soccer,” I noticed his empathizing in the word don’t. And I just said, “In Costa Rica, they do!” By this moment, an Italian friend of mine had overheard the discussion between the English guy and me. I had played soccer with the Italian guy before, and without a comment, or discussion. My friend yelled at the guy standing by the byline, “Hey let her play. She can play with me. She’s good”. When he said that, my anger was completely gone. As I went in to play, I could see as my friends were staring at me from outside the field, amazed at what I had done. I really didn’t care what anybody thought anymore. I really appreciated what my friend had done there with me. So I started playing. At first, nobody passed it to me, well just like two of the guys in my team, both Italian. Then I started making some good passes, so more people started passing it to me. I now noticed, that the guy who was by the byline, was coming in to play, finally. He was put into the other team. This time, rage came back to me, but I decided to take it on the game. I was running with the ball at my feet, I looked up to see who I could pass it to. But as I raised my head, I saw him, the byline guy. He was coming towards me to take the ball. But as he was coming, I noticed that his legs were slightly apart. So I passed the ball between his legs. As soon as the ball passed, I heard the boys bothering him. And this actually made me happy; after all HE was the one who didn’t want me to play. I could also hear my friends cheering from outside the field. I then passed the ball, and the game went on. Later in the game, the ball was passed to me, and I ran towards the goal and shot. I scored! Everybody cheered. Everybody except of course the byline guy. I looked at him, and waited for him to make eye contact with him, and directing him a look as if saying, “You see?.. Girls do play soccer.”(NO OFFENSE MEANT TO ANY ENGLISH)