Egyptian women develop interest in American football

Egypt’s first all-women American football team does not only have its eyes on the ball but also seeks to be a dominant force at the international level.

The team was established in October 2015 by Egyptian male American football players.

The founders hope that if many women sign up to join the sport, eventually a national Egyptian team will be formed.

“Captain Kalusha is the one who thought of putting a girls team together. We’ve both been on the men’s team for the past three years and we’ve played on the national team as well. So we wondered why girls who wanted to play this game couldn’t because it wasn’t available in Egypt. So myself and coach Kalusha formed the ‘Pink Warriors’. We started with 25 girls and now we have 37,” co-founder of Pink Warriors, Ahmed El-Sewedy said.

The men’s game is usually characterised by a lot of hits and tackles. There is however a slight difference with the women’s game as the ladies hardly tackle one another to the ground.

“There is history being made here and I have to be part of it. It can’t be that Kalusha the head coach is starting a new initiative and we don’t participate in it. The most special thing in American football is the team work. If you play alone on the pitch you will never win, but if we all play together and read each other well, we will definitely win,” Pink Warrior team member, Aya Aly said.

Earlier this year, the American Football without Barriers organisation travelled to Egypt with players from the National Football League to organise training sessions for lovers of the sports.

Three more American football teams have been formed since last year following the establishment of the Pink Warriors.

Reuters