Kick It Like A Girl

Congratulations to Aitana Bonmatí on winning the Ballon d'Or Féminin! This is her second time winning the Ballon d'Or, last year in 2023 and now in 2024. Aitana Bonmatí plays for Spain and Barcelona. After receiving the Ballon d'Or and being shown a picture of her younger self playing football she said:  "Today I hope to be a role model for many girls starting out, I hope that this can reach many households and that many girls and boys see themselves in me. I hope to be able to inspire many young girls and boys too. Like the Aitana in the photo, who definitely needed female role models and did not have any at the time."  Other women to win the Ballon d'Or are Alexia Putellas from Spain who also won the award twice, Megan Rapinoe from America and Ada Hegerberg from Norway.  Like Aitana Bonmatí,  Alexia Putellas also plays for Barcelona making this Barcelona's fourth time winning the women's Ballon d'Or.  The Ballon d'Or Féminin started in 2018. ...

On the 25th of October the first round of the play-offs began. These are the results:  Azerbaijan 1-4 Portugal Bosnia and Herzegovina  2-2 Serbia Albania 0-5 Norway Montenegro 0-1 Finland Turkey 1-1 Ukraine Slovakia 2-1 Wales Georgia 0-6 Republic of Ireland Greece 0-0 Belgium Romania 1-2 Poland Slovenia 0-3 Austria  Hungary 0-1 Scotland Croatia 1-1 Northern Ireland  Luxembourg 0-4 Sweden Belarus 1-8 Czech Republic On the 29th of October they played each other again: Czech Republic 0-0 Belarus  Ukraine 2-0 Turkey  Finland 5-0 Montenegro  Austria 2-1 Slovenia  Poland 4-1 Romania  Norway 9-0 Albania  Serbia 4-1 Bosnia and Herzegovina  Sweden 8-0 Luxembourg  Northern Ireland 1-0 Croatia  Belgium 5-0 Greece  Wales 2-0 Slovakia  Republic of Ireland 3-0 Georgia  Scotland 4-0 Hungary  Portugal 4-0 Azerbaijan  Round 2 will be on the 28th and 29th of November  On the 28th of November Serbia vs Sweden...

Women's football has become increasingly popular since the ban on women's football was released in England in 1971. The highest attendance for a women's match was Barcelona vs Wolfsburg, in the semi final of the Women's Champions League on the 22nd April 2022. It was a record breaking 91,648 and the game ended 5-1 to Barcelona.  Although women's football is now supported, not everything is equal. Male footballers earn millions of pounds, the average annual income of a Premier League player is £3,000,000. A female footballers' average annual salary in the Women's Super League is around £47,000. Although this is a good wage, it is in stark contrast to the men's salary. The highest-earning female players only earn 1% of the highest-earning male player. This stat really puts the unfairness of wages in football into perspective. In non-playing roles in football the earnings are similarly unfair. England Women's coach Serena Wiegman earns around £400,000 a...