When a group of women first started kicking a ball around in the evenings, in a bid to avoid the confines of the local gym, it seemed like it would be little more than a hobby.



But now, having seized an opportunity to participate in the Futsal Cup of Europe, the amateur team is having an unexpected moment in the limelight.

In a country where football is considered an exclusively “male sport”, training opportunities for women are largely nonexistent. To fill this void, a group of mums at a local Moscow football school for children pushed for their own training sessions, saying that they didn’t only want to watch their kids from the sidelines, but wanted to take part.

“There is no women’s football in Russia because everyone here thinks football is a male sport,” says Vladimir Dolgy-Rapoport, founder of the Tagsport football school, located in Moscow’s Tagansky park.

The team’s head coach, Alla Filina, says the enthusiasm from the group is tangible. “It is amazing how these adult, serious women, who are successful in their different professions, who have families, come here five times a week and work as hard as they do,” she says.

Set up in spring 2014 and now calling themselves GirlPower, the team trains for an hour or two each day, practicing goal-scoring, passes – with much falling over and shouting along the way.

With women’s football in Russia, it’s not like ordering pizza when you have 250 links relevant to your search Betina Kostadinova

‘I’ve wanted to play football for as long as I can remember’ Photograph: Pascal Dumont/The Moscow Times

For some of the women who make up the team, the opportunity to play the sport they love is a dream come true. “I’ve wanted to play football for as long as I can remember,” says Yelizaveta Surganova, 27, a journalist. “When I was a student at Moscow State University, I was excited to find out that there was a female football team. But the coach turned me down because all the girls in the team were more experienced. I was so disappointed,” she said. In the Tagsport classes, women with any level of experience can participate, says Surganova. “It felt right even from the start,” she adds.

Irina Reider, a young woman who works as the general manager for the Uber app in Russia, had a very different experience: she played football when she was a student, and then spent years missing her favourite sport after graduating. “I searched for places in Moscow where I could play again, but there were hardly any options.”

“When I joined the team, I was much more experienced than the other girls, but they caught up amazingly quickly.”

Betina Kostadinova, a 24-year-old advertising saleswoman who has loved playing football since childhood echoed Reider’s complaint about the lack of options.“With women’s football in Russia, it’s not like ordering pizza when you have 250 links relevant to your search,” she says.

Self-motivation

In spring last year, GirlPower FC was created and separated from the regular classes for women. This April, the club took part in the Futsal Cup of Russia for women – a modified form of fast-paced football played with five players indoors – and came fourth.

But things first started getting serious for the women this autumn. The team started taking part in tournaments, playing against both amateur and professional clubs in Moscow and in other Russian regions.

“The winner and the runner-up of the Cup of Russia are invited to the Cup of Europe. The teams that came first and second declined to go, for various reasons, and so we were invited,” says Dolgy-Rapoport.



It was a complete surprise. “We didn’t expect it. I knew the overall level of women’s football wasn’t that high, but still.” he said. “Basically, it was a result of the girls’ crazy self-motivation.”

The team is currently looking for a sponsor who will help fund the trip. Photograph: Pascal Dumont/The Moscow Times

Both Filina and Dolgy-Rapoport are sceptical about the team’s chances of winning, and say that’s not why they’re going to Barcelona. “All in all, it’s going to be fun, funny, painful, vibrant, sad – it will be a lot of things, but it will be a great experience,” the coach said.



The team is currently looking for a sponsor who will help fund the trip. “For several girls who weren’t even playing football a year ago, we need $25,000 to make their dream come true by participating in the Cup of Europe in Barcelona,” says a statement on the club’s website.

The team currently consists of 28 women in their late 20s, but only the very best will be picked for the tournament.

But even if the team is successful at the Cup of Europe, Filina doubts the girls would pursue careers as professional players. “They didn’t come here [for a professional career], they came here to have fun and make their dreams come true,” she says.

A version of this article first appeared on The Moscow Times