Opinion – Renata Mendonça: Letter to the U-20 team: that their football is not invisible

It was supposed to be something simple. Playing football on the street, on the court, at school, without having to beg them to let go, to listen, to touch the ball. It was supposed to be simple playing what you liked, not what you thought you had to like.

In fact, it was supposed to be simple to dream. The boys who played with you always said “I want to be a football player”. Wanting wasn’t power, not even for them, but no one denied them a dream. Not for you. “Where did you get that, girl?” There was nowhere to get it. Where were the women who played ball? The games you saw on TV only had men, it was hard to even believe that being a football player was a possibility.

But you were born female. They were not born to accept logic, but to subvert it. That’s how you, Lauren, saw her father drive 200 km daily to take her to training at the only club that accepted girls her age, the Olympic Center. You met Yaya, who started there too.

It was around many obstacles that you, Luany, discovered the social project “Daminhas da Bola” and there you found the opportunity to be able to do what you loved most. Tarciane met her there too. From Belford Roxo to the world, the third best player in the Cup, it seems surreal, right? You never doubted.

It’s true that you were born at a time when women’s football was no longer banned, but it seemed invisible. It was difficult to find out where and how you would be able to play, compete for championships, develop yourself to one day be in a World Cup. You weren’t allowed to play with the boys in children’s tournaments, but there were no girls’ competitions at that age. It wasn’t forbidden, but deep down it was, right?

Each of you has a different story, but always with one thing in common: playing football has never been simple. Fate wanted everyone’s path to cross with the first coaching staff of the U-20 team, effectively formed by people who came from the same place as you. A place of struggle for recognition for women’s football.

Jonas Urias, a coach who helped develop the women’s base working at the Centro Olimpico; Jessica de Lima, the assistant, a former player who went through the greatest difficulties to make a living from football in Brazil and today fights so that the young women who wear the shirt of this team do not have to go through the same sacrifices.

This team, even before going to the World Cup, created an identity: always together. You had a voice to develop and execute an idea (of game, of behavior, of fighting for a common goal). And, even without a worthy preparation (the CBF only provided an international friendly before the competition), even debuting against the then vice-champions and favorites for the title, you conquered the best campaign in the history of Brazil in a U-20 World Cup .

A third place (equaling the position reached in 2006), but with five wins and only one defeat, 13 goals scored and 3 conceded. It had been 16 years since Brazil had reached a World Cup semi-final in the under-20 category. It had been 15 years since a women’s team had finished a World Cup on the podium (in any category). You made history.

It was supposed to be something simple to also have this story reported, recorded, highlighted. But, looking at the sports sections of the main newspapers and websites in the country, not a single line about your conquest. Women’s football for many still seems invisible.

Good thing, whether it’s simple or difficult, you’ve been trained not to give up. Always together, count on me.