For the love of the game

introduction/ backstory

Set in July August 19

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Fresh from the 6 week off season Gia was waiting anxiously by her phone expecting an important call. Prior to off season and a few days post the champions league final in which she played for spurs men's team discussions had already started about her future at the club, her contract was out of date and she had a decision to make. Tottenham Hotspur wanted to see her sign a new 5 year deal at the club as she proved pivotal in their success especially in the past 12 months as the team made 4th in the premiere league and 2nd in the champions league.

Gia had been thinking about what she wanted since the beginning of the 18/19 season, she knew her contract would be up by the time the season finished and she wanted to be sure she had considered all her options and made the right decision for her career in the future. Gia had been at tottenham since she was 8 years old as was scouted into their training academy. She felt incredibly comfortable and at home with everyone and had grown so much as a player and a person, Gia felt she owed her success to the club and everyone that invested in her talent and progression. Although she was starting to get an itch for a new environment and a new challenge.

The young lady felt immense pressure on her at all time since she was the one woman chosen from the Tottenham ladies team to join the men back in august of 2018 as all the governing bodies of football globally including the FA and UEFA in Gia's case had decided that they would start to bring about change and integrate the men's and women's game by imposing a rule that every league club had to include one woman in their first team. This did not mean the woman had to necessarily start or play in every game but a woman had to be named for the team and if the bodies saw frequent times where one of the woman who made the teams wasn't chosen to play for any reason other than injury or strategy they would investigate for any behind the scenes prejudice.

joining the men's team was exciting along with daunting for Gia, she knew the players and the staff well as she was the current women's team captain and basically grew up in the training grounds. She lived around the corner most of her life after her family relocated from Croydon in south London to Tottenham in the north at aged 11 so she could be closer to the training grounds and attend a school nearby where many of the academy kids went. Gia was a natural choice for captain of the ladies, she played predominantly as a centre forward or a left winger. She trained a lot as a striker moving up through the age groups but found the centre forward and winger roles fit her better as she liked to get more into the play and feed her teammates passes whilst being able to score goals herself too. She wanted to be a complete player and worked very hard defensively also. She became captain at aged 20 and led the ladies with a lot of heart and support she was a natural leader and a great listener when anyone needed help or advice. She loved being a captain and did miss this when transferring to the men's side.

There were a lot of opinions flying around including for and against the switch in the footballing world when the announcement was made 3 months prior to the change. Much discussion went on at every league club in the world about who would be chosen. The decision in Gia's case was pretty much unanimous. She was the stand out player for spurs ladies and although the team would be loosing their captain and arguably their most important player, the club decided she would make the best choice to join the men's side. Gia's teammates were happy for her and thanked her for everything she had done for them all. She would still see them all the time training at the grounds and this made her very happy. she grew a lot with these women and wanted to stay in touch.