Michael strikes for her goals
In a community where soccer is a male-dominated sport and female players aren't taken seriously, Nicole Michael (17) from Riverlea doesn't allow for her spirit for the game to die down.
In a community where soccer is a male-dominated sport and female players aren’t taken seriously, Nicole Michael (17) from Riverlea doesn’t allow for her spirit for the game to die down. Since the age of eight, Michael watched her brothers playing street soccer and this is where it all began.
“I was the only girl at the time and I wanted to try everything my brothers were doing. I started by just picking up the ball and kicking it around, watching it and then I just started loving football,” explained Michael.
The striker played for three clubs under the Jowest Local Football Association. These teams were: Goretti Football Club, Da Boys Riverlea team, and Eindhoven Football Club.
After these teams, Michael went for a Sundowns trials and made the team but was only there for a month due to transport issues. Michael is currently playing for the University of Johannesburg and she’s in her second year with the team under the Sasol League which according to her is the biggest league for the women’s division.
Michael also plays for the ‘Bantwana’ South African U17 women’s national team and she went to Morocco on February 10 with the team.
“It was a great experience, it was my first time in an aeroplane. We went for a week because we were playing a World Cup qualifier. It was good to see lots of talent from the girls on the field. When we played against Morocco, we beat them 1-0,” added Michael.
She has been playing for the national team since the beginning of this year. When it comes to challenges as a female playing in a male-dominated sport, Michael said: “They only cater for the boys but what I do is, I go around asking coaches why they don’t have girls’ teams.
“Some coaches start girl teams but then it never lasts because some girls don’t take the sport seriously. The national teams try to accommodate us as females, they try to make it big but on a local community level, they don’t really take us that seriously.”
Michael took Top Goal Scorer twice in a row for the UJ team and she looks forward to taking the same position in the first team this year.
The striker said that when she’s famous one day, she would like to host a tournament for girls in our community. In November, Michael will be playing in the 2018 FIFA U17 Women’s World Cup in Uruguay.
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