Along with the times, more and more women are becoming important figures in men’s football clubs. Some of them even occupied crucial positions in the structure of the men’s football club. There are also those who are directly involved in official matches. In the following, there are 5 most influential female figures who play an important role in the world of men’s football.
1. Marina Granovskaia
Who doesn’t know this figure? Having been Roman Abramovich’s right hand man since 1999, Marina’s name suddenly became famous in the 2020 transfer market. As we know, Marina, who now serves as a director at Chelsea, is an important figure in the movement of the Blues on the player market floor.
Marina is very agile and good at negotiating. He is trusted by boss Roman Abramovich to take care of the negotiations for the recruitment and sale of players. Through his ingenuity, the Blues managed to bring in Timo Werner and Kai Havertz in the transfer market last summer.
Apart from contributing to the player contract negotiations, Marina is also an important figure for Chelsea in establishing her contract with sponsors. One of her services is to enter into a contract agreement with Nike worth 60 million pounds per year until 2032.
2. Amaia Gorostiza
Amaia Gorostiza is said to be an important figure in this victory of Eibar vs Madrid in Champions League. Gorostiza was elected president of Eibar in 2016 and became Eibar’s first female president in the club’s 77 years of history.
Gorostiza still serves as president of Eibar today. Behind the scenes, she has been an important figure in Eibar’s success in staying in the middle of La Liga since 2016. Although only at Ipurua Stadium, the Basque region which only has a capacity of 7,000 seats, Eibar under the leadership of Gorostiza has always recorded healthy finances. At that time, Eibar became a pioneer of football clubs with ISO 9001 quality certificates.
3. Patricia Rodrigue
When Eibar massacred Madrid in November 2018, there was another figure who was juxtaposed with Amaia Gorostiza. She was a colleague of her office, namely Patricia Rodrguez Barrios who at that time served as club director.
Patricia started her career in men’s football by becoming Eibar’s finance director in 2014. When Amaia Gorostiza was elected president, Patricia was promoted to become her right hand (woman).
Patricia left his post at Eibar in February 2019. Three months later, she was announced as general director of the Segunda Division club, Elche and second vice president of La Liga. In February, Patricia Rodriguez was announced as the new CEO of La Liga club Granada and became the first female CEO in Spain.
4. Bibiana Steinhaus
Meanwhile, on the green field there is the figure of Bibiana Steinhaus, a professional referee from Germany. Bibiana’s figure is one of the most influential field court in men’s football. Bibiana is a pioneering female referee in Europe and even the world.
Being a professional referee at the DFB (German Football Association) since 1999 when she was 20 years old, Bibiana’s career as a referee has inspired many people, both men and women who want a career in the world of football. Bibiana was the first referee in Bundesliga (2007), DFB Pokal (2008), Bundesliga (2017), and DFL-Supercup (2020).
“Above all, I want to be judged on my appearance, not because I am a woman. I hope all the referees have a successful season, where the referee is not often the center of attention,” said Bibiana Steinhaus.
5. Chan Yuen-ting
Although women’s football is growing and increasingly competitive, in fact the number of coaches is still dominated by men. Although the development of female coaches is still lacking, there are several female soccer coaches whose careers are successful and of course inspirational. One of them is Chan Yuen-ting.
Her name is certainly less popular, but this Hong Kong woman is a former professional female footballer who has now been appointed as the coach of the U-16 China women’s national team since 2019. Chan Yuen-ting’s name went viral in 2015 when she took over the managerial post at Eastern SC, a participating club in the Hong Kong Premier League. She became the first female coach in the men’s football club there.
A year later, Chan led Eastern to the league title and she officially became the first and youngest female manager (27 years) to win the league title. In 2017, Chan made another record as the first female manager to compete in the AFC Champions League. Prior to her career as a manager, Chan had experience as an assistant coach at various men’s football clubs in Hong Kong.
Those are 5 inspirational female figures in men’s football. However, outside of the 5 names above, we believes there are still many female figures who have contributed to men’s football.
