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 2-0 victory in the country’s first-ever international match against the Seychelles, the launch of a local 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.
Yet 22-year-old midfielder Layan Jouhari told AFP she and her teammates were measuring their progress “one step at a time”, even as they nurture ambitious long-term goals like playing at the World Cup one day.
“I watched the previous World Cup before this just out of curiosity and interest, but this year’s World Cup was different,” Jouhari said.
“I watched it with a different perspective, like these are now my opponents.”
