In our #homegrown series, we were intrigued to find out more about the incredible girls-only Alliance Football Club. To really understand what they’re all about, Ipshita Sharma gets up close and personal and check out a day in the life of one of their youngest members!
In our #homegrown series, we check out the Alliance Football Club and its commitment to making sure the girls in Dubai get access to the best football coaching in a sustainable manner.
In 2015, Alliance Football Club’s Director Mehran Rowshan a multi-FA-qualified coach, started the club because she truly wanted girls in the Middle East to benefit from the positives that come out of such groups.
Any kind of sporting initiative always focuses on the importance of teamwork, the importance of showing up and always being prepared. All of these are amazing takeaways for young girls growing up in this region. This is especially true because these learnings extend off the football pitch, not only is it an opportunity to build the girls’ self-esteem, de-stress from school, but also encourage gender equality.
To show off exactly what we mean by this – we take you to a day in the life of Dru Travasso
Question: What do you do when you wake up in the morning?
Dru: I like to play with my dog Elix, if I have time before school I will go outside and play football with him, he likes to chase after the football but he is also a good defender and tries to tackle the ball from me
Question: What is school like?
Dru: I like school, but Thursdays are the best because we get to play football in PE. Sometimes I even get to play with the boys, which was scary at first but now I enjoy the challenge and scoring against them makes me happy.
Question: What are your favourite subjects?
Dru: I really enjoy English. Once we had to write about everything that we did in one week, and I could tell the teacher how many times I play football, what I did in the sessions and tell them about what I am learning at Alliance.
Question: Tell us about Alliance FC
Dru: I have been at Alliance for almost a year. I love it and I have made lots of new friends. Alliance has helped me to get better at football, even dribbling past defenders which I used to be scared of. I would like to get better at shooting though, so when we play matches next season I can hopefully score some goals in matches, that would be cool.
Question: What do you love most about Alliance FC
Dru: I love the warmup games, sometimes we practice dribbling, close control, attackers against defenders which just feels like fun. Enjoying the game stops me from worrying about making mistakes or losing the ball.
Question: What is your favourite memory at Alliance FC?
Dru: When I played in my first match a few weeks ago. I was worried at first but had good teammates with me and even won which was so much fun, I really enjoyed it and can’t wait till the next time.
Good: Equipping girls with life skills while they have fun with one of the biggest sports is incredible. Ex: they have to turn up in full kit and on time for every practice to drive home the importance of punctuality and discipline.
Bad: It’s sad that something like this is necessary to break gender stereotypes even today.
Trendy: After the Euro Cup, the interest in sports is on an all time high!