Argentina are leaving off-field issues behind – this Women’s World Cup feels like a new start

Sophia Braun was outside the box when she drilled a loose ball past South Africa’s goalkeeper, bringing every Argentine fan inside New Zealand’s Dunedin Stadium to their feet. The goal, deep into the second half, proved to be a crucial moment for La Albiceleste and inspired another strike within five minutes that earned the South Americans their first draw at this year’s World Cup.

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It was a stunning turnaround for a team accustomed to losing. In their 10 World Cup finals fixtures prior to this game, the team had conceded 38 goals, scoring only five. Their overall tournament record now stands at 0-3-8 ahead of their final group-stage match against Sweden on Wednesday.

But with back-to-back World Cup appearances, it seems the tide is shifting for women’s football in Argentina — it is making a hard-fought comeback. Despite hailing from a nation where football is religion and where players such as Lionel Messi and Diego Maradona are godlike, the women’s game in Argentina is only now finding its footing. And that’s thanks, in no small part, to the women pushing for relevancy on the world’s biggest stage.

This year’s Women’s World Cup seems like a fresh start for women’s football in Argentina.

The differences compared to 2019 have been vast. The team has a medical staff three times larger than four years ago, players say, and the team has had more preparation by way of friendly matches before the tournament. For the first time, journalists gathered with players before they travelled to their base in Auckland to tell their stories.

“With respect, from the last World Cup to this one, the biggest difference is the preparation we had,” said centre-back Aldana Cometti ahead of their match against Italy. “We feel more prepared. We had more friendly matches than last time. We feel more competitive.”

She continued: “In the last World Cup, we came to France with a medical team of two people. Today, it’s a medical team of six people. We tripled that — and that’s a huge achievement for us to have so many staff in a medical team. That was part of our fight and (part of) what the federation is also promoting within the AFA (the Argentine Football Association) for the growth of women’s football.”

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Fans are also warming up to the team they affectionately call Las Pibas. Argentine fans have filled New Zealand’s stadiums, their chants echoing through the stands as they wave their sky-blue flags and beat their drums. The scenes are reminiscent of the same energy that won this fanbase a FIFA Fan Award in Qatar. This year, there are noticeably more fans at the tournament than in 2019, according to Cometti.

“Seeing so many Argentinians here is amazing. It’s beautiful. It feels like in Argentina they’re also living this World Cup,” Cometti said. “Going through the streets, seeing people getting excited, asking us for photos in our own hotel — it’s something that makes us feel valued and, also, proud — like what we are doing is being recognized in the way we feel we deserve.”

It wasn’t always like this. The public has never been as invested in the women’s team as it is now and the AFA has a long history of refusing to provide the women’s side the necessary support and resources it has asked for. Following the World Cup in 2019, players who were vocal in asking for better resources were later excluded from the senior team’s roster — including, most notably, Estefania Banini.

Banini captained the national team in 2019, leading the squad to their first points in a World Cup with a pair of draws. After the tournament, she was openly critical of Argentina’s coaching staff and their training methods. Then-coach Carlos Borrello subsequently left Banini, and others who were also critical, off his roster for the 2019 Pan American Games. She took her fight public on Instagram.

“The coaching staff decided to leave me out,” Banini wrote. “They (the staff), who are the only ones who get paid. They, because of our differences (of opinion), have decided to put an end to my dream of defending the most beautiful (flag)!”

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Banini goes on to say she was excluded for voicing how she felt the staff were not up to the standards their team deserved. “We want the real growth of women’s football, we want to keep up with our potential,” she wrote. “We want trained people with enough experience to learn from!”

The 2019 captain was not called up for nearly three years. She made her return in April 2022 after the team’s current head coach, German Portanova, took over.

The public spat was the latest illustration of the crisis in Argentine women’s football. It was also a culmination of a years-long battle that players endured to simply receive recognition from the AFA. Though versions of women’s football have existed since 1991, the Argentina national team made their World Cup debut in 2003. For two consecutive tournaments, the team failed to earn a single point.

After missing the 2011 and 2015 tournaments, FIFA listed the national team as “inactive”. In 2016, they had no head coach and lacked support from the AFA. Shortly after returning from their long hiatus, players went on strike in 2017 over unpaid stipends, poor training conditions and poor travel arrangements. Because the team was then considered amateur, players were fighting for stipends of about $8.50 per training session, or roughly 150 pesos.

By 2019, the fight for better working conditions for women footballers trickled to club level in Argentina. That February, Macarena Sanchez sued her club team, UAI Urquiza, and the AFA for the professional status of the sport. Players for her club received a $10 monthly stipend for travel and were offered part-time roles.

By March, the AFA granted the sport professional status for the top division of women’s football in Argentina. The announcement was made by AFA president Claudio ‘Chiqui’ Tapia, who said the association was “working to develop women’s soccer in all provinces” of the country. This meant that all 16 clubs in the Primera Division must have at least eight players on professional contracts. Teams were given $3,000 a month to split among those players for an average monthly salary of $375 per player — equivalent to what players earn in the fourth division of men’s soccer in Argentina.

This Women’s World Cup is the first time players are guaranteed to earn $30,000 each for participating after FIFA announced in June that $49million of the prize money would go directly to players. Any remaining money, after countries have covered costs, is expected to be reinvested into footballing activities. The prize money increases as teams advance, with earnings for winners of the tournament ballooning to $270,000 each.

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Those amounts can be considered significant income for players competing this month in New Zealand and Australia. Some teams had to fundraise their way into the tournament after receiving little help from their own federations. Yet these earnings pale in comparison to the men’s game. In 2022, the men’s Argentina national team was estimated to have won $42million for lifting the World Cup trophy — a sizeable chunk of the already generous $440million in prize money FIFA pooled for the men’s event.

The growth of women’s football in Argentina did not happen by accident — it happened despite their federation’s resistance. It seems the two are now in lockstep, as players have said this tournament. The team, now led by Portanova, has shown glimmers of hope for what could be a bright future for Argentine women’s football.

Their latest match against South Africa was a stunning turnaround — demonstrating the team’s potential to compete on the world’s biggest stage. But the South Africans exposed Argentina’s weaknesses on their defensive end, easily scoring two goals in the first half that appeared to seal La Albiceleste’s fate. Every mistake made on the pitch, though, is something the team will work to improve, Portanova says.

But he is also realistic and aware of the high expectations a country such as Argentina has for its players on the pitch. The country is home to the men’s current world champions, after all. And, as some believe, the best player in the world in Messi.

Every team’s goal is to win the World Cup. But, for the Argentina women’s team, winning one game would likely be celebrated with the same glory.

“Every World Cup game is historic,” Portanova said, “because we intend to do what has never been accomplished in Argentine women’s football: to win and take home three points in a World Cup.”

It’s no secret the growth of Argentine football is at an inflection point. Just this week, the AFA announced it would formally present its expansion strategy in the United States on August 15. The federation made headlines after announcing plans to build a training facility in Miami, where Messi now resides as a member of MLS side Inter Miami. It remains to be seen what role the women’s game will play in their plans.

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Cometti already envisions the post-World Cup evolution of women’s football. She says the tournament will “change the world”. She’s convinced her career, and those of her teammates, will never be the same once that final whistle blows.

“With the amount of people who are here, it’s already changing,” she told reporters. “The amount of people in the stands, it’s changing — and it’ll keep changing. Hopefully, you can all be part of this big change and our fight.”

The thought of it, she said, gave her chills.

“It’s incredible,” she continued. “We never would have dreamed this five or six years ago, but now we’re living it and we’re enjoying it. I swear to you, seeing so many people in New Zealand — for us Argentinians it’s on the other side of the world. And to see stadiums full? It fills us with excitement and pride.”

(Top photo: Harriet Lander – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)