Cameroonian girls defy prejudice to pursue soccer dreams

Gaelle Dule Asheri, 17, a soccer player, who is amongst the first wave of girls being trained by professional coaches at the Rails Foot Academy, plays football with her friends outside her house in Yaounde, Cameroon, May 3, 2019 [Courtesy]

When Gaelle Asheri first started playing soccer in the dirt streets near her home in Cameroon’s capital, she was the only girl on the informal neighborhood teams which used stones for goal posts and kept score by chalking results on a wall.

Asheri, 17, and her teammate Ida Pouadjeu, 16, are now among the first wave of girls being trained by professional coaches at the Rails Foot Academy (RFA) in Yaounde. It was set up in January to foster female soccer talent in a country where many still see the sport as a man’s game.