Sudan’s ‘sister coach’ takes love of football to field

GADAREF, Sudan: In Sudan, where a women’s national football team remains a distant dream, Salma al-Majidi knew the only way to take part in her beloved sport was to coach... and that the players had to be men.

Majidi, 27, acknowledged by FIFA as the first Arab and Sudanese woman to coach a men’s football team in the Arab world, is a pioneer in a sport that dominates the region. “Why football? Because it is my first and ultimate love,” said Majidi, clad in sports gear and a black headscarf, as she led players of the Al-Ahly Al-Gadaref club at a practice session in the town of Gadaref, east of Khartoum. “I became a coach because there is still no scope for women’s football in Sudan,” said Majidi, who is affectionately called “sister coach” by her team. Daughter of a retired policeman, Majidi was 16 when she fell in love with football.

It came about as she watched her younger brother’s school team being coached. She was captivated by the coach’s instructions, his moves, and how he placed the marker cones at practice sessions.

“At the end of every training session, I discussed with him the techniques he used to coach the boys,” Majidi told AFP, as she watched her own players practising on a hot day at a dusty ground in Gadaref. “He saw I had a knack for coaching... and gave me a chance to work with him.” Soon Majidi was coaching the under-13 and under-16 teams of Al-Hilal club in Omdurman, the twin city of Khartoum on the west bank of the River Nile.

Questions like whether she understood football or had the skills to coach men were all put to rest over time, said Majidi, speaking in a soft but confident tone. Named in the BBC’s 2015 list of “100 inspirational women”, Majidi has coached the Sudanese second league men’s clubs of Al-Nasr, Al-Nahda, Nile Halfa and Al-Mourada.

Nile Halfa and Al-Nahda even topped local leagues under her coaching. She currently holds the African “B” badge in coaching, meaning she can coach any first league team across the continent.

The only other woman to have gained recognition in Sudan’s footballing world was Mounira Ramadan, who refereed men’s matches in the 1970s. Sudan joined FIFA in 1948 and established the Confederation of African Football (CAF) along with Egypt, Ethiopia and South Africa. It won the CAF trophy in 1970.