The third place of the Italian U-17 in the World Cup in April in Costa Rica has been a success. It has been a result unique in its kind since no national youth soccer had never before won a medal at the world championships. The word success clashes, however, with little resonance that the result has had. The world of female soccer players is an invisible world, which does not help the Italian football to fill sit greatest failure: the presence of girls playing football. The analysis of this failure goes through the wrong message that affects many girls who want to get closer to football:
- Value judgments (… if you play football you will become a tomboy!)
- Gender biases (playing football does not make you be graceful like a little girl should be)
- The language used on a daily basis with the kids on the football field (… run like sissies, … you are a sissy!).
Italian football is likely to persist in its absence at least until therewill be a change in language, but also the deep understanding that biological sex has little to do with the physical and psychological predispositions for the sport. In spite of this facts , however, the girls on the soccer field could show much of their passion, strength and desire for redemption as demonstrated by these portraits of the little footballers: women football
(by Daniela Sepio)
