Ana Maye, female leadership in an Africa that vetoes women

Ana Cristina Maye has been fighting for years to pave the way for all African women.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
23 October 2022 Sunday 23:36
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Ana Maye, female leadership in an Africa that vetoes women

Ana Cristina Maye has been fighting for years to pave the way for all African women. She emigrated from Equatorial Guinea to Spain when she was only eight years old. Here she grew up and trained until she decided to go back to her origins to promote football and women's leadership in Africa.

Today she is the general coordinator of the Federation of Equatorial Guinea. A managerial position that is not always liked in the circles of power in certain countries: “The most common thing is that they look at me and ask me: 'Where is your boss?' And then she answered them: 'I'm the boss'. Other times they just don't even look at me, they ignore me. But I always persist because I don't do it for myself, I do it for those who come after me”, she explained to Mundo Deportivo, at whose II Women's Soccer Gala she will act as ambassador this Monday (6pm, Old Damm Factory).

And it is that in a large part of the African continent, girls still have this space vetoed: “I travel throughout Africa and see countries where a woman cannot even touch a ball. She is super bad. There is a cultural ingrain that girls should marry and have children, nothing more. That is your role in life. I don't even work anymore, I just dedicate myself to the home. This still happens in many places in Africa”, she admits sadly.

Maye grew up in Spain, practicing soccer with a normality that she now fights for in Africa. He knew that to change things you had to work hard, so he graduated in Sports Law, got his FIFA agent's license and worked for the Spanish Football Federation. Until he felt the call of his homeland: "Then I thought: if Africa needs us, even if I have grown up here, I will contribute my knowledge and my career to my country of origin."

And he got down to work until he reached one of the highest positions in the Federation of Equatorial Guinea, although they don't always make it easy for him: “Sometimes I enter a place and notice the rejection of the other directors. They reject you with their eyes, with a non-verbal language. I study the culture of a country before traveling and if necessary I cover my hair with a scarf, but I demand that they speak to me”, he maintains. "Football is still very masculinized, but the strength of women has to be noted. If they would let us, we could do much more. Why not?", the Equatoguinean ventures.

Together with Ana Maye, ambassador of the 2nd Women's Football Gala of Mundo Deportivo, dozens of women, footballers, managers... from the world of sport will parade this Monday. A party in which FC Barcelona will be recognized with a special prize for having broken the world record for attendance at a women's football match last season. The Camp Nou opened its doors on March 30 for the quarterfinals of the Champions League against Real Madrid, filling up with 91,553 spectators. A month later, in the next round against Wolfsburg, the record would be broken again with 91,648 spectators, which until now is the best entrance in the world to a women's match.

Mundo Deportivo will also distribute another eight trophies to recognize the most outstanding soccer players. The legend trophy, which last year went to the historic German footballer, now responsible for women's football at UEFA, Nadine Kessler; It will be decided between Birgit Prinz, Nadine Angerer and Lotta Schelin.

The prize for the promising soccer player will be disputed by Karna Solskjaer, daughter of the legendary Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Manchester United player; Carla Camacho (Real Madrid), Hanna Ulrika Bennison (Everton) and Júlia Bartel (FC Barcelona), who this year have been proclaimed champions of the Under-20 World and Under-19 Europe.

And the best goal of the season will also be chosen, a category in which two Barça players are nominated. Claudia Pina, for her goal against Alavés last season; Salma Paralluelo for the cannon shot that pierced Sandra Paños' goal when the striker was playing for Villarreal; and the great goal of the English Alessia Russo with a heel against Sweden in the semifinal of the last European Championship.