Interview with the first female Golden Foot winner
Which soccer player comes first if she combines performance and personality?
No, it’s not something you should think about until mid-day, but Sportbladet called out its first historic winner at Guldfoten.
– It’s great to be a pioneer, says Kosovare Aslani.
It’s a lame joke from the start.
We also have to blame the bad reception during the phone interview from snowy Ostrobothnia to sunny Nice that it still lands so badly.
The 33-year-old AC Milan profile has learned that wayward and unpredictable career choices serve a greater function. They keep her on her toes, but they also encourage others to think, be free, and make decisions that benefit them.
He had a cast foot
I went to Real Madrid first and now to Milan. It wasn’t what was expected, but this is my go-to. I’m not going to move because you say I have to play on this team. It is my own feeling that governs what I should and how I should experience the world. She says it’s very important to follow what makes you feel good.
I understand. But next season you have to go to the USA.
-…wa?
It’s a really good league.
– …
Fits your playing style.
– …lol! You really say that! They think they can help make the decision.
We’re talking about her last night, when at a ceremony in Monaco she became the first woman to receive the Golden Foot award. The selection process took place in two stages with the jury selecting the candidates among whom the public voted.
Men’s category winners: Robert Lewandowski, Barcelona and Poland.
Winners in the women’s field: Kosovare Aslani, AC Milan and Sweden.
They would both throw their feet up and immortalize on Monaco’s promenade with her Its name is pompous promenade.
– It was a special feeling to receive the award. She says I feel proud.
“It sounds pretentious, but…”
In fact, it’s amazing that it took 20 years to separate the women.
Because, unlike other individual awards, the Monegasque Award not only rewards performances on the field, but also your character, that is, your life choices and your civic courage. Following the footsteps of exciting playing geniuses such as Shevchenko (2005), Ibrahimovic (2012) and Eto’o (2015), Aslanis ended up.
Or not, what’s more true is that it will be first in its own foot category, and in 50 years tourists will be able to walk from the then-most recent award-winner all the way to Aunt Aslani’s Falls.
– They will be there forever. It is very specific. I always want to be first and it’s great when I succeed. It sounds noble but I want to help shape women’s football into the bright future of the sport.
How do you see your role in the public eye other than playing football?
I want to be inspiring and motivating. When I stand there on stage, I represent all of women’s football, how far we’ve come, but this is also just the beginning.
Over the years, Aslani has learned that a female soccer player is expected to have the kind of social analysis that men aren’t required to do. Girl kicking the ball is automatically political and you can either rant about that thing or embrace the possibility.
Aslani does the second.
“Some of us try”
She is a woman of foreign origin. She is a solid, granite midfielder and a good scorer. She is faithful to tactics but scolds loudly when she does not find the activities of the national team or Real Madrid professional enough.
You can call her loud. You won’t be the first. But you can also call her bold, visionary, changeable, and demanding—and give her a gold award as a thank you.
The most important thing of all was getting an award for daring to take a stand. She says it has marked my career.
Could it go the other way, where you feel sad that you’re not allowed to just kick a ball?
– Oh. It has always been this way. I mentioned that in my speech yesterday as well. We get questions all over the world and they have questions about tomorrow’s tactics. I believe everyone should use their platforms to make the world a better place, not underestimate their power. Sport has all the potential to change the world and some of us are trying.
What kind of football world would we have if all the players acted like you?
– I don’t know. And there were some protests during the World Cup in Qatar, but I didn’t see a single interview from there where players were asked about what was going on off the field. It’s different, we wouldn’t have acted this way. We will be happy to answer.
It takes a breath and tries to boil down 15 years of outings, headlines, controversies, and fiery speeches into some sort of conclusion.
– I don’t want anything left unresolved. I am proud of all the statements I have made, since I was 17 or 18 years old and joined the national team and dared to stand up for myself.
Plans: Then it stops
It’s easy to see Kosovare Asllani’s career as a steady upward curve, but you shouldn’t forget that she got stuck in France two years ago. She was signed with Paris Saint-Germain in 2012 and got off to a great start, but each season has been more challenging. The reason, which she only indicated afterwards, was that the big club did not train as she would have liked, so she lost weight and lost pressure in her body.
The solution seemed unorthodox. One of Sweden’s great footballers made a stopover at Manchester City but soon returned home to Linköping.
There she caught her breath, winning SM gold and winning the Diamond Ball. And I headed to Europe again, this time with quadriceps that couldn’t rest during many gym sessions.
Did it feel like it was over when you were 26 and horrible in France?
– more? huh?
yes you know…
– All flights look different. We are picky about setbacks and believe that they make people give up. I rely on setbacks and feel more complete than ever because I have risen from them.
Yes, but I think PSG’s time says something about you. Others who lose their appetites at the age of 26 can at most cut out the elite’s investment by switching to the women’s league.
– Maybe you’re right, but I’ve always been driven and followed my own passions, so I don’t know anything else. In my first tournament, I thought about what other people thought, and I wasn’t there.. Since then I haven’t thought like that. Why should I care about others?
When do you stop playing football?
– I can’t say “when you’re bored,” because she never will. It’s getting more fun every year. But I clearly see the end. I don’t have many years left. I can’t even fathom that I’m 33, it’s crazy, but that means I have a few championships left. WC next summer, then the Olympics and…well, I’m not a guy, so I’m aiming for the two championships first.