Unit 6 Reading: A football player

The article presents Maryam’s football journey in her own words. As a child, she and her father watched their favourite team together. At eight, she said she wanted to play, although people around her said football was not for girls. At school, boys sometimes let her be goalkeeper because they doubted what else she could do; this made her promise herself that she would play for Azerbaijan one day. Her parents were surprised but open to her goal and helped find Gomrukchu FC, a girls’ club. She became goalkeeper for its Under-13 team and spent two years there. Her grandfather was her strongest supporter and sometimes travelled hundreds of kilometres, even in snow and rain, to watch her. During the coronavirus pandemic, she spent more than a year away from her team and trained alone to stay motivated. After returning, she played well, received an invitation to Azerbaijan’s U17 national team, and made her European Championship debut as goalkeeper against Montenegro in September 2021. At the time described in the article, she was eighteen, goalkeeper for Neftchi PFC’s first team, and also played for Azerbaijan’s U19 national team. Her grandfather had died before he could see that achievement. Maryam accepts that people may call her lucky, but her final point connects success with hard work and using opportunities.