It’s time to wrap up the year.
I’m not the biggest fan of these ‘looking back at the year’ post so it will be brief, but so much happened this year!! Plus I’ve linked to some people who went about this a lot more enthusiastically lol, so go engage with their stuff. Without further ado …
Mariam of SHE scores bangers said it best, starting off her latest video by concluding that
… there is not a set of moments that changed the game - I think every single day, every moment, every game, every single event that happened, completely changed the course of the sport …
She goes on to describe 2023 as being the year of really passing on the torch, which I think is a very fitting description of the year as we saw a massive shift worldwide. Iconic trailblazers, women who were part of bringing the game to where it is, hung their boots up and made way for the young stars. This was particularly prevalent at the World Cup, where the likes of Linda Caicedo, Lauren James, Olga Carmona, and Salma Paralluelo stepped up to show that they are more than ready to take over.
If you do one thing to start off the new year in the best way, I advice you to make that a subscription to Mariam’s Youtube channel.Samantha Lewis summarised the year that’s gone in 10 poignant points … The Australian perspective on this is very refreshing. For the Aussies, “THE FRANCE GAME” is obviously top of the this list. I think it’s hard to understand just how important the Matildas’ efforts at this home World Cup have been, but Samantha makes a good effort at conveying just what it has meant for this country. Also this map is quite telling lol.
On Sweden’s behalf, I’m really sorry we had to beat them in the bronze match (we should’ve been playing in the final but okay…)
・゜゜・・ﾟ☆ .・゜Jennifer Hermoso ✧・゜゜・・ﾟ☆
Financial Times named her as one of the 25 most influential women worldwide in 2023. The Guardian named her ‘Footballer of the Year’ (the article is basically a recap of all the twists and turns of the story, good refresher.) Hermoso, alongside her colleagues in he Spanish WNT, were named on Forbes’ list of the 100 most influential women in Spain 2023.
The sportsmanship vibe carried on and was going strong!! A lovely storyline wrapped up at the end of this year with one of the OG sportsmanship couples Sam Kerr and Kristie Mewis getting engaged and seeing Kristie move to London to join West Ham. The things you do for love eh.
I need to read up on my lunar calendars, but I’m pretty sure these past 12 months the stars were aligned in the year of the goalkeeper, or should we really just call it Mary Earps year?? The English goalkeeper, alongside a World CUP silver medal, raked in individual accolades, ranging from BBC Sports Personality of the year, Sunday Times sportswoman of the year, BBC women’s footballer of the year, to FIFA women’s World Cup golden glove … Quite impressive considering that she was out of favour in Phil Neville’s Lionesses squad for two years, but it could be argued that all the awards are a bit disproportional compared with her accomplishments. She’s far from the singular goalkeeper with class, as there have been other incredible goalkeepers on display this year like Nigeria and Paris FC’s Chiamaka Nnadozie, Spain’s Cata Coll and Sweden and Chelsea keeper Zećira Mušović.
This photo of Lauren James and Michelle Alozie is one of my absolute favourite photos of the year. I know the immediate fall-out was not great (with LJ receiving a straight red in the game of course, missing out on important games, and furthermore got lots of abuse afterwards) but I love the way Alozie dealt with it on social media afterwards, effectively dedramatizing it by joking about it.
It was a year FOR THE BLAZERS and Sweden brought the best blazer game.
Announced today, the New Zealand co-captains Ali Riley and Ria Percival were both made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to football in the New Year Honours list. It feels like New Zealand’s part in organising the World Cup often gets overshadowed because they didn’t achieve the same sports results as Australia, but they did so well and at least they did not make the players pay a high-ass tax rate on their earnings from the tournament, whilst leaving FIFA exempt ... Riley was one of few footballers at the tournament who took a stance for LGBTQ rights with her rainbow-coloured nails.
Bar Riley, there was a stark lack of stance-taking at this World Cup, which felt rather unusual for the women’s game, especially considering the current climate of the world.
But also this year we have seen an active male footballers come out!! Jakub Janktu, who represents the Czech Republic and plays for Cagliari in Serie A, joined Zander Murray (who recently announced his retirement from football) and Jake Daniels as male footballers playing in top leagues in Europe and claiming their queerness … Out width the European perspective there’s also Josh Cavallo and Andy Brennan in Australia, and Collin Martin at North Carolina FC in the US.
The Philippines was one of eight countries making their debut at the World Cup, the highest number of debutants ever. Kind of makes sense considering the new expansions, but it’s also a testament to the development of the game. The Philippines’ excellent run to the World Cup is captured beautifully by Megan Reyes in her podcast documentary called Between Two Worlds. She mentions how one of the key measures taken in preparation for the tournament, to make the team gel, they went on to play 30 international games in a calendar year, on virtually every continent except for Africa. And it payed off, they qualified!
Morocco became the first Arab country to qualify for the World Cup, and what an excellent run they had, beating Colombia to make it through to the round of 16.
VERSUS has assembled a great guide to ‘What We Learned About Football in 2023’ with brilliant points as always, featuring Morocco’s Nouhaila Benzina who was the first female footballer to wear a hijab at the tournament, alongside Palestinian referee Heba Saadieh.It seems to be hard for these men in football to leave a good thing alone however … In October it was announced that Morocco were firing their coach Reynald Pedros, who seemed to be well-liked by the dressing room and had just led the team through some great achievements. His replacement? Jorge Vilda, the disgraced Spain manager who was fired following a few years of scrutiny really, all of which culminated in ‘Las 15’ striking from the national team last year as allegations of mistreatment and general dissatisfaction arose. As we know most of the players returned - bar Mapi Leon, Patri Guijarro and Claudia Pina - and despite all of the drama went on to win the World Cup!!
Leaving Vilda soaking up the accolades and tanning in their shine (no, you can’t say that? It’s a very Swedish expression…) BUT following everything that happened with Luis Rubiales, the issues with Vilda gained more footing as well and resulted in him and the Spanish football federation parting ways (the Spanish fed is a whole other beast that will need to be discussed as well lmao.)
In typical male fashion, failing upwards, he took the dismissal in his stride and was soon after announced the head coach of Morocco, illustrating how there’s very rarely any *real* repercussions for men abusing their position of power. And to think that there were still men who yelled ‘well what about HIS career?’
Talking about Vilda naturally leads us onto his boss, Rubiales. As we all remember, at the medal ceremony of the World Cup final he sexually assaulted Jenni Hermoso by forcibly kissing her on the mouth and behaved incredibly inappropriately with several other players on camera broadcasted worldwide
Yet it was clear by his behaviour afterwards that he thought it was just going to blow over. Not this time. What followed was unprecedented chaos unravelling in real time, bizarre and exhausting to witness yet impossible to look away from.
A lot of it was thanks to the work of a group of female Spanish journalists, working at Relevo, who were integral in bringing Rubiales down. This is a good talk featuring some of their team members discussing the fallout from the World Cup, as well as the importance of diverse and *good* journalism.
Where is Rubiales now? Recent allegations, which were submitted to FIFA, from the English FA claims that he forcefully kissed Lucy Bronze and touched Laura Coombs. Allegations which Rubiales commented on with outrage “suggesting [he is] some form of creep”. If the shoe fits …
FIFA recently released the full report following his disciplinary hearing, where the verdict was that he is banned from football for three years. But this is far from “done.” There are criminal proceedings being held in Spain, and on January 2, Jenni Hermoso will take to the witness stand at the national court as a victim of sexual assault and coercion. After that judge Francisco de Jorge is going to decide whether to go ahead with opening a trial on the alleged crimes.
Despite ending this on what feels like a rather bitter note, it is exactly because of these heavy and infuriating things that I feel strangely hopeful. This year has really been an excavation of the women’s game from the ground up, reluctantly but one that has been long overdue and sorely needed in order for the game to continue to grow. There’s been a sense of not shying away from looking at the really ugly stuff, and I get the feeling that a momentum has grown where people are more comfortable saying “that’s not okay.”
I feel very hopeful about the future of women in football on and off the pitch.
As for me, I’m closing out this year and bringing in the new one in Paris. I’m writing this seated on an outdoor terrace surrounded by chain-smoking Parisians and playful waiters cracking jokes. Musing on what the next 12 months have in store for women’s football with the upcoming transfer window, a Champions League campaign that is looking very exciting already, the final qualifiers for and subsequent Olympic Games taking place in the summer, as well as the domestic leagues and their ability to throw curveballs.
・゜・・ﾟ☆ .・゜Have a good transit and see you in the new year ✧・゜・・ﾟ☆