The Saudi Women’s National Football Team Wants a Piece of the Saudi Football Boom

While Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar crowd Saudi stadiums, women’s professional football, which was nonexistent in the country five years ago, is undergoing a quieter but no less radical transition.

The latest in a series of friendlies meant to give the players some much-needed match experience, the Saudi women’s national team practiced one-touch passing on a recent evening in the mountain city of Taif. The game was against Pakistan.

The team was just established two years ago, and in March it climbed as high as 171 in the FIFA rankings.

This achievement came after a year filled with firsts, including a first international match against the Seychelles that ended in a 2-0 victory, the launch of a domestic women’s premier league, and a formal bid to host the 2026 AFC Women’s Asian Cup.

All all, it has been a confusing few years for Saudi women, who weren’t even permitted to watch professional football matches until January 2018.

However, Layan Jouhari, a 22-year-old midfielder, said that she and her colleagues were assessing their development “one step at a time” even as they nurtured big long-term ambitions like competing in the World Cup someday.

This World Cup was different from the one I saw the year before, Jouhari remarked, “I watched the previous World Cup just out of curiosity and interest.”

“I watched it from a different angle, as if these were now my adversaries.”

The enthusiastic Saudi players serve as the face of wider reforms taking place in the conservative petro-state of Saudi Arabia as it attempts to open up to the outside world and move away from fossil fuels.

Key restrictions that attracted criticism from women’s rights activists in recent years have been lifted, but detractors contend that legal discrimination still exists in areas like divorce and child custody and that women are frequently caught up in an ongoing campaign to quell dissent.

A FIFA+ video that was published last month follows how the national team has embraced new opportunities, comparing the opposition that its players historically faced for participating in a “masculine” sport with the current period of generous government funding.

The team’s supporters outside of Saudi Arabia are also highlighted in a press release for the movie. In particular, a social media post from the Pele Foundation calling the team’s first FIFA match “a historic day not only for you, but for everyone who loves football” is highlighted.

However, not everyone is eager to support the Saudi football enterprise wholeheartedly.

Before FIFA confirmed in March that no agreement had been struck, discussions this year regarding the Saudi tourist board sponsoring the World Cup prompted condemnation from co-hosts New Zealand and Australia as well as US player Alex Morgan.

Critics would benefit from experiencing the improvements in Saudi Arabia up close, according to Monika Staab, who served as the first coach of the Saudi national team and is now the technical director, in an interview with AFP.

“I always advise someone who doesn’t know what’s going on here to come here to Saudi Arabia, have a look, and see for themselves what is going on,” she stated.

Before Saudi Arabia started supporting women’s sports as part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Vision 2030 reform drive, football was an everyday occurrence for many members of the national team.

“As far back as I can remember, football has always been a part of my family. The 28-year-old squad captain Bayan Sadagah remarked, “My elder sisters used to play football, and they helped me fall in love with the game.

However, the new options have made her think about leaving her day job as a nurse so she may concentrate on “one path”.

The addition of foreign superstars to the men’s game inspires fans even more.

Jouhari recalled watching films of N’Golo Kante, a French celebrity, endlessly as a young woman.

Jouhari and Kante are both midfielders for the club team Ittihad now; Jouhari plays for the women’s squad, while Kante plays for the men. Jouhari is eager to see him, but warns that she “might lose my words” when it really occurs.

Staab, who has experience with women’s programs in more than 90 nations, places a strong emphasis on what her own athletes may accomplish.

She said, “I’m just interested in women’s football because I want women’s football to evolve and prosper because that is my objective.