When Girls United was born in 2017 with the aim to provide girls around the world with equal access to
football, founder Romina Calatayud had no idea she’d be 6 years into the game and empowering thousands of girls like Jameela.

But here we are, 2023 and Girls United is buzzing. It’s an established grassroots organisation in London, igniting a passion for football in girls who have been told the game’s not for them. At Nike, we’ve been supporting this goal for the past three years with our ‘Love the Game’ programme and have reached more than 1,000 girls and 60 diverse coaches and P.E. teachers across 15 schools in South London so far.

And the partnership goes deeper. Girls United delivers free football sessions in London for girls like Jameela, a 10-year-old participant in the Love the Game programme. For her, the best part of playing football is being part of a team and just having fun. Every player feels nerves whenever they step onto the pitch. But just like Lauren James, Lucy Bronze, Keira Walsh and the game’s greatest players, Jameela’s confidence always shines through when she plays. Off the pitch she loves watching football too, even though there aren’t enough women’s games on TV for her liking — and she’s got a point if you ask us.

We also know how important it is to have leaders you can relate to, so a huge part of our Love the Game programme is pushing to recruit and train more diverse coaches and P.E. teachers. And it’s working. For Jameela, the coaches at Girls United are her role models. They encourage her to push through on the pitch which gives her the same ambition off the pitch, too. Nike also supports Girls United’s school workshops to teach girls essential life skills like leadership and teamwork, so young ballers like Jameela can get out there and take the lead.

Jameela loves the game and hopes to one make it in the big leagues one day. But she has one request — there has to be more girls’ football out there, and we couldn’t agree more.