Manchester City and Scottish International midfielder Caroline Weir becomes Girls United’s newest Global Ambassador, with the aim of helping create more opportunities for girls to get involved in football.
Girls United and Fulham FC Foundation partner up to create a schools league in South London and inspire girls to play football with female coaches as role models.
After a 10 year professional football career, Velarde joins GU to revolutionise women’s football training with her knowledge of female physiology, Ayurveda and functional training.
Over 16 teams and 150 girls take part in Girls United’s schools football league in South London.
Ana is not only a coach but a player for Dulwich Hamlet FC who works on our “Trailblazer” programmes, focused on providing female role models to support our sessions and schools leagues. Read about her experience.
The Girls United team win the student Community Action award, supported by Mayor of London, for #FindYourGame in the King’s Civic Challenge.
We have signed Vero Boquete as our newest Girls United Global Ambassador. We believe that together we can keep helping girls around the world, making football more accessible and empowering them to succeed.
The growing world of women's football is full of inspiring stories and role models. Girls United’s Play Like a Girl event series was created so that we can hear from those who have paved the way before us and support those who are storming through the barriers.
Jackie Bushell from the FA in England came to Girls United Mexico to give 15 girls the opportunity to become FA Level 1 accredited coaches. She writes about her experience saying, “I have to say it’s been one of the best experiences of my life - I love coach education and supporting people develop, but this group has blown me away.”
When recently publishing the profiles of their Ballon d’Or nominated players, European powerhouse Olympique Lyonnais opened their description of Amandine Henry with the words: ‘it is rather rare to find defensive players leave with the prize, or [to] even be named in the finalists, despite their crucial roles on the field.’ Indeed, one quick glance at the shortlist proves the bias towards attacking players with two big exceptions being defensive duo Lucy Bronze and Wendie Renard, also of Lyon and both well regarded for their ability to get forward as well as their defensive prowess.
Ballon d'Or: who deserves it in 2019? Megan Scott dives into some of the favourites and controversies of this year’s winner, find out more before the awards ceremony on Dec 2nd, 2019.
While the title of greatest footballer is always going to be a subjective point of contention, it is simultaneously proving increasingly frustrating and imperative to make strides in awarding those deserving rather than those most known.
From the beautiful lagoon, dancing salsa at 3am, delicious local food from friendly faces and serving a meaningful cause - Bacalar is a place of dreams.
This summer was anticipated by many to be the turning point in women’s football history with the 2019 Women’s World Cup garnering more viewers and coverage than ever before. While the women’s football movement grew across the globe, we wanted our Girls United club players from the small town of Bacalar to be able to experience this phenomenon. Mari, Luiza, Melissa and Kim were sponsored by Adidas, Equal Playing Field, ADFP Global and our Crowdfunder supporters to travel to Lyon and London, leaving their home town for the first time in their lives.
Girls United London U15s vs North Dulwich Charter School - 23.05.19
Our U15s played their first match on May 23rd and did so brilliantly! A well deserved win, including 3 screamers from Rachel.
Girls United London U12s vs Athenlay FC - 19.05.19
The Chicas Unidas Bacalar Club fought hard against vastly more experienced opposition in a competitive friendly against the Chicas Unidas Miguel Hidalgo Community Club, in a game that featured no less than nine goals.
Eventual winners Miguel Hidalgo started strongly with 3 goals in the first ten minutes from their powerful forward, but by half-time our Bacalar Club grew in confidence to make it a more competitive second half.
A great team move was finished with a fantastic left-footed strike from wide midfielder Luisa before central striker Melissa finished from a quick counter attack to bring the game back to a tight 3-2 scoreline. With the midday heat intensifying, Miguel Hidalgo took advantage of the option to rotate players, bringing more experienced players from their Liga Rapido squad, which ultimately made the difference, as they extended their lead further by 3 goals. Chicas Unidas scored a late consolation goal with the final kick of the game, concluding the match with a 6-3 win for the hosts.
Despite the final scoreline the Bacalar Club can be very proud of their performance against considerably older opponents, who in some cases were more than double their age. A rematch awaits in when Miguel Hidalgo travel to Bacalar in April.
Girls United London vs Athenlay FC
The U12s made up of no less than 12 girls came together for their first match representing Girls United! The game kicked-off on a beautiful, sunny day. With face paint and great attitudes, the team battled for the whole match in spite of an early goal against. All of the players played some incredible football, getting out of their comfort zones in new positions and, most importantly, working together to the very end.
The match ended a 4-1 loss with our goal, a long-range screamer from Sylvia. Though the scoreboard wasn’t in our favour, the girls deserve a great round of applause for their performance. They had us on the edge of our seats, so much so that everyone forgot to take photos!
A special shout-out to the Girls United fans (parents and siblings) who never stopped cheering and putting all their support behind the players! I am sure we can expect to see the community just get better as the team progresses.
We are so excited for a rematch and for many more matches to come!
Picture this – it’s match day, a 7am start on a Saturday morning, we meet the girls at the pickup point ready for departure to an away fixture. The minibus is working on Mexican time arriving at 8am for the prearranged 7.30am pickup. A one-hour drive follows, along one of Quintana Roo’s remote jungle ‘roads’ slaloming between mild potholes and actual craters.
No radio signal, no phone signal – we might even have passed a town named: ‘Middle of Nowhere’ along the way. Arriving minutes before the agreed kick-off time at 9am, we are worried at the sight (or lack of sight) of the opposition. Precisely 3 girls, neatly dressed in their white Girls United league t-shirts, three-quarter length jeans and sandals, share a bottle of Coca-Cola for breakfast outside the only shop for miles. Opposite the shop the venue for today’s contest is located, and although not Wembley, the pitch is in good condition all things considered. I take a few minutes to mark out the perimeter line with cones and clear off the remaining clutch of baby chicks out of harm’s way.
With no sign of an opposition coach or even a responsible adult, I venture up to the shop to open extremely limited conversation with my extremely limited Spanish and enquire with the girls as to the whereabouts of the rest of their party. In response I receive directions to the coach’s house and what I understand to be a suggestion that more players will join us shortly. The crackling of the public announcer (a tall pole with a tannoy speaker attached, jutting out of the roof of the shop) interrupts conversation with the voice of little Maria Jose, whom the store is named after, broadcasting news of our arrival to the village. After a short while, having received the announcement, the remainder of the opposition players arrive at the pitch in small clusters from all directions - only one of which arrives with attire even remotely suitable for a football match. With still no sign of the opposing team’s coach, I call the girls from both teams together for a quick ‘warm-up’ under the 25°C morning sun.
We eventually kick-off a mere 40 minutes later than planned with what I would suggest is at least close to a record attendance at this venue, with around 25-30 men, women and children watching on and supporting the girls - not bad in a village that has a total population of somewhere around 350 mark.
As well as taking on the role of coach for both teams, with duties of organising both line-ups and offering some of the few words of encouragement I could recall in Spanish, I also took on the job of refereeing the game, learning the words for throw-in and goal-kick in the process. The match was a competitive one, with our Bacalar Club ultimately running out 3-1 winners against the hosts.
Far removed from anything I’ve known in football before - the jeans and dresses, the bare feet, the chickens, the far corner of the pitch doubling up as part of a road and every other bizarre event of the day – the experience left me fascinated and grateful that I was able to provide the opportunity for these girls to play, which they otherwise simply would not have been granted without Girls United’s programmes.
This is the town of David Gustavo Gutiérrez Ruiz or as Google Maps labels it: ‘unnamed road’.
This was an experience that inspired me to put together the Club Mexico – Communities page for the newly updated Girls United website.
A town in such a beautiful setting, with such a unique way of life in comparison to what I know was something I was keen to explore further. Girls United works regularly across five local communities, including David Gustavo. Of these towns, most have no internet access and only one has an employment rate of above 30% for its total population. Alarmingly, when considering employment rates for the women of these communities - not one of the towns has an employment rate of over 5% for its female population specifically! This is further evidence of the importance the work Girls United does in engaging girls in sport along with the inclusion of life skills development within the community coaching programmes.
The towns may not all be recognised by Google yet – but each of Girls United’s communities now has a dedicated section and a team emblem on the website, each derived from Mayan Hieroglyphs. Below is an overview of each emblem’s creations and significance.
Want to find out more about the demographic and programme at each community, visit https://www.girlsunitedfa.org/mexicocommunities
Click the images from the gallery to enlarge
Girls United are excited to announce our International Women’s Day celebration which will be an opportunity for people of all ages and gender to come together and promote females in sport!
The day will feature a range of activities, sessions, challenges, food, drink and prizes!
10-11am - Arsenal Women’s coach, Nancy Baker, will be coming down to train with Girls United players aged 7-14 - there is no charge for the session so please feel free to bring any daughters, younger sisters or anyone who is interested.
10:30am - Registration for teams - Teams from both the men’s and women’s competition will prepare to play!
11:00am - The first games will kick off - the 5-a-side tournament will be a friendly environment with, of course, some healthy competition.
11:00am to 3:00pm - Skills Stations - There will be skills stations around the venue for you to have a go at some challenges and learn a thing or two about women’s in sport.
3:30pm - Prizes and awards - The awards ceremonies, including prizes and trophies for tournament winners, most valuable players and raffle prizes from the Skills Stations.
We are very excited to bring the community together on this celebration that is raising the profile of women doing amazing things in all industries and around the world!
There is still time to sign up, please find more information here: https://www.girlsunitedfa.org/iwd
If you would like to find out what else IWD is about, click here.
