Women’s football has made great strides in recent years, culminating in the success of this summer’s World Cup in Canada and international female teams appearing for the first time on a Fifa console game.
However, the prejudice and sexism from male counterparts remains ever present in football, from the bottom up. With disgraced president of Fifa, Sepp Blatter, the self-titled ‘Godfather of Women’s Football’, calling for women to wear tighter shorts. Hmm, the creepy uncle of women’s football, perhaps?
But this hilarious video – which has emerged from Spain – left two massive defenders red faced after the ‘man’ who had been completely owning them with their skill was in fact a woman.
Professional footballer Brenda Perez, 21 – who has played for Atletico Madrid, Espanyol and Valencia – agreed to be part of the experiment filmed by TV show El Hormiguero to ‘destroy some of the myths’ surrounding women’s football by transforming her into a male footballer – Dani Perez. Going by the video she absolutely smashed it.
It took a seven-hour make-up session to transform Brenda using a facial mask made out of latex, a beard, a wig and gloves to cover up her finger nails, before she took part in a non-league match in Madrid with 21 blokes.
Only the referee and the manager of her newly adopted team knew her real identity, as she set up goals and constantly baffled her opponents with nutmeg and trickery straight out of old Cristiano Ronaldo’s back catalogue.
Every time she touched the ball she received cheers and applause from the crowd, with spectators and her opponents in disbelief with the skill on show, and it was not long before she netted her first goal.
Brenda finally revealed her true identity towards the end of the game, while standing over a free kick. Smashing the ball into the back of the net after letting her hair down and ultimately, her secret out- leaving the two burly defenders in the wall completely shell-shocked.
El Hormiguero script writer Jordi Molto said:
Women’s football doesn’t have any presence alongside men’s football which receives all the media attention. Some people might say women haven’t got the same physical capacity or the same strength but this shows the technique can be the same and women and men with a ball at their feet can put on the same spectacle.
Brenda added:
It was an unforgettable experience. ‘A couple of players were looking at me a bit strangely and I overheard one making the comment: ‘His beard’s coming off, what’s wrong with him’ but apart from that it went well.
Maybe examples like this could finally pave the way for a bit more equality in football? We can only hope so.
