“Captain Fayza” … the story of a woman who defied the men in her stadium and happened

Photography – Asmaa Yousry:

On the brink of danger was a girl under the age of five, looking at a future that she drew with her feet before her hands, choosing for herself to embark on an adventure in which hope and treasure are behind the scenes of the trip, armed with his determination only to fight against the lifestyle within the environment in which he grew up, a family that maintains the traditions and a society that rejects his idea from scratch. But the rebellion played a fundamental role in the details of the story, until it finally reached its goal years later, and obtained the feat of the English. That is the story of Fayza Haidar, the first certified coach of the English Football Association in Egypt.

Fayza remembers her beginning with soccer, which was not easy behind the scenes described for us, when the little girl decided that her first experience with the sport would be in a field that some considered exclusive of men. Reaching five years was enough for the beginning of the adventure, going down to the street to meet the boys in their sport. The favorite was not something that was welcome, be it from his family or the children. At that time, she tried to find a solution to the parents’ rejection of the idea that their daughter played soccer, so she decided to go down during the hours when her mother was not present to practice the hobby that she herself have chosen.

Fayza does not forget the first situation that made her more related to soccer in her childhood, which began with a trip to accompany her brother, who was training to practice soccer. At that time, he asked the coach to participate in a training with the rest of the boys, so the refusal was the title of the situation, things made it more difficult not to allow a girl to play soccer. In school with the boys, at a time when younger girls were interested in other things, Faiza had no part.

“The ball is a must in the blood.” Fayza describes the nature of her association with soccer, to complete with, “My family was the most difficult need because I play soccer. My grandfather is a mayor and my uncle is a sheikh of a country and my mother was mother and father , and I was afraid of the experience of playing football, and my family worked with me many problems, but with talent it is satisfied “.

Regarding the most important difficulties that he faced at the beginning of his football career, Fayza says that the economic aspect was the one with the greatest impact, since her mother could not afford the expenses of buying school clothes, in addition to teaching materials such as clothes and footwear sports.

“Many times I walked for about an hour, which was from Helwan until May 15, 1995, which was very difficult.”

“At the beginning, there was not a great financial return from playing football. It started with just gaining 40 pounds, before I got hired and switched from Helwan to the aviation team, then things started to improve.”

Her playing career began with Helwan’s women’s soccer team when she was 13 years old. After just one year, he joined the Egyptian national team and then moved to the Aviation Club with 5,000 pounds. During the same period, he participated in the knockout rounds of the African Cup, African Championship and African and Arab Games, and has professional experiences in the Emirates with clubs. Al-Shabab, Al-Arabi, Al-Jazeera and Victory.

After a long career in soccer, Faiza decided to enter training, which started early in the morning, in addition to playing, he took over the leadership of the 2009 team and was with a men’s team. But the experience was not easy, as he has memories to tell.

At that time I participated in a tournament that consisted of 64 teams, and when I entered the stadium they thought it would be an easy catch for everyone, as well as some inconveniences that were not without bricks and glass being thrown at us ”.

He continues: “I arrived with the team of this league at the Plaza de Oro and won third place and crowned the title of best coach, and after I worked well, some began to ask for my services to train their teams.

Fayza was appointed assistant coach of the Egypt U-20 team, along with Hussein Abdel-Latif, the coach, but the team did not qualify for the African Championship and the device left after that.

Faiza has an exceptional achievement, which is her accreditation as a trainer of the English Federation in 2015 due to her courses affiliated to the British Council in Egypt, which organized the Basic Skills Course of the English Federation.

She confirms that this accreditation came after going through 3 different stages, which is why she launched the first girls’ project entitled “Realize Your Dream” in 2013, and the second phase was on how to bring a sponsor for a project in which the work consisted in training 100 girls from public schools in the city of Helwan, to finish with the work of two teams. For women’s football in Helwan, and the third phase, how to train multiple people. With 23 other teachers, he managed to train 15,000 apprentices, so that this number could return to their country to transfer knowledge.

“My dreams come from finding myself as a coach before 2030 in a Premier League team, or with a team from the main European leagues.”