Meet the FIFA Women’s World Cup fans behind the teams: Spain
READ MORE
This year’s tournament will be held in France – beginning 7 June – but thousands of kilometres away, in Western Sydney, the two young daughters of Spanish-Australian Natalia Ugarte will be tuning in in the middle of the night to see their heroes play.
Aisha, 16 and Aliya, 15, play together at Sydney club Dunbar Rovers. They have the luxury of passionately supporting two teams at this tournament, the country of their birth, Australia, and the country of their mother’s ancestry, Spain.
“Being Spanish is so cool,” said Aliya, as Aisha chimed in: “I’d love to go to Spain, though I don’t like planes, so I don’t know how I’m going to get there.”
The girls’ father Tolga is Turkish-Australian and whilst Aisha has chosen to wear a headscarf, both sisters speak passionately about their Spanish heritage.
Their mother, Natalia, keeps them close to their roots.
Their grandparents, Julian and Rosalia, were leading members of Sydney’s Spanish community after migrating from Spain in the 1970s.
Julian was a former president of the now-shuttered Spanish Club in Liverpool Street. Natalia danced flamenco at the club and played in its first ever women’s football team in the mid-90s.
“Back in those times there weren’t the same options for where you could go or grow in football in the women’s world. It was difficult,” Natalia said.
“We came across some really tough opponents. We played state league players. We participated in what was called the Ethnic Cup, losing to England in the final.
“It was a different era to what it is now and for where women’s football is going now.”
Natalia now manages Dunbar’s girls teams, who play in the lower divisions of the state-based National Premier Leagues (NPL).
She’s witnessed first-hand the growth in the women’s game in recent years, particularly since the ascendancy of the Matildas on the world stage.
“My position in Dunbar is what I want to see. I want to see the club and the girls grow, go into NPL2 and then into NPL1, and then some of those girls may go off to even bigger things in football,” said Natalia.
“Last year we already had eight players who went into NPL2 and NPL1 and growth is huge.
“And countries have to evolve with that as well, I think. It’s time for women’s football to do that and you can see it happening.”
Some 3.5 billion viewers from 200 countries are forecast to watch this year’s Women’s World Cup and national associations are waking up to the potential of women’s football.
Natalia said should her daughters continue in the game and make it to the highest level, she’d rather them play for Spain than Australia.
“Just the football and the culture. I’m not saying that isn’t there in the Matildas, which would be the first place they would go because you’ve got to grow in Australia in order to go overseas.
“But I would want their ultimate goal to be Spain.”
However, in Spain, the women’s game is caught in a tug-of-war between the country’s football federation and its powerful national league, La Liga.
The standoff has come as a shock to the women’s football community and has caused the negotiations for Spain’s first-ever collective bargaining agreement for female footballers to stall.
Spain’s Association of Women’s Football Clubs says the idea is “a hasty and improvised project”, which “generates obvious insecurity for the future of women’s football in Spain”.
It’s a troubling backdrop for a national team featuring at only its second World Cup.
Despite the issues at home, Spain is expected to escape its group which includes Germany, China and South Africa.
Sixteen of the 24 teams will progress to the knockout phase and Spain will be seeking its first ever World Cup victory.
Whether or not that win comes for the Spaniards, Natalia Ugarte is confident her daughters will benefit merely by Spain’s presence in France.
“It’s a huge thing to be able to have female footballers the girls can look up to and grow into and have that dream and see that journey.
“It’s so important.”
Article source: https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/man-stabbed-after-argument-at-newtown-unit-block-police-20190119-p50scz.html?ref=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss_feed
Comments
Post a Comment