OMG: women also love football
If there is one thing I have been looking forward to immensely over the past few months, it is the sports summer. The biggest sporting events all coincide this summer. Sports summer means all day sports on TV. Wimbledon, the Olympic Games, the Tour de France, but especially the European Championship. Ready for every match and really celebrating the Dutch national team with extensive snacks and orange pastries. Tonight we are of course going home extra early to make preparations. This European Championship is truly my salvation during the summer break of the football competition, because normally football also means weekend for me. I was raised with it: my mother has always been the biggest football fan in the house. She has totally indoctrinated us with her love for Ajax, we support our club in good times and bad. Watching football is relaxation.
Yes, yes, breaking news: women also love football. Maybe even more than men. I don't just love the game, I love my club and the players. They are such heroes to me that it feels like I know them a little. I enjoy the whole culture that surrounds football. I can cry along with the English fans who cheered in the last minute for the goal that ultimately meant the salvation of their team. And to reassure you: I also just know what offside is. Apparently, it is hard for some people to believe that there are also women who love the sport. When I was happily watching the match Switzerland – Italy (as the daughter of a Sicilian mother, I found it very important that the Italian team would go far), I heard the commentator say something that really ignited my Italian temperament.
As everyone knows, during the moments when the match is not so exciting, the commentator of the day always fills it with a bit of chatter. Usually, there is some background information about the player who is currently on the ball, such as which club he plays for, how many goals he scores, and more of that kind of statistics. But this particular commentator decided to do it differently. Maybe he needed some variety, maybe he thought he was saying something fun. In any case, it was at the moment when a certain Italian player came on the ball that the man chose the following words. I quote: “The man who makes football fun for women too. The number 5 of Italy.”
What he probably meant is that all women would find the number 5 of Italy a particularly handsome man. That women would only watch football because there are handsome men playing. And he said that about a player I personally do not find attractive at all. That will also be shocking news, but just as not all men fall for women with blonde hair and blue eyes, it is also not the case that all women fall for men with medium-length brown hair and brown eyes. He not only does a disservice to female viewers, but also to our female football teams, which are quite successful internationally. And has he ever watched football, just on TV? Maybe he would have noticed that Fresia Cousiño Arias, Noa Vahle, Suse van Kleef, and Eline de Zeeuw, for example, are also women: women who talk about football on TV and clearly know what they are talking about. Personally, I would have liked to drive to Germany to explain to him how stupid and shortsighted this statement of his is.
Of course, I will not let this detail spoil the rest of my European Championship enjoyment. Tonight we will just be extremely excited for the match of our Dutch national team against Romania. And the most festive thing is that we actually have a pretty realistic chance of advancing to the quarter-finals, with orange accessories, beer, and snacks. Together with my sisters, my mother, and also a few men (my father and brothers-in-law) who are watching. Well, sorry, but among us, the men who love football are in the minority.
© image Caro Daur @annekeedeligt
