Where once there was indifference about women’s soccer, now there’s excitement.
Fans wait for the U.S. women's national soccer team to come out on the field before their game against Belgium at Banc of California Stadium, on Sunday April 7, 2019, in Los Angeles, California.
USAs Joy Fawcett, left, fights for the ball with Norway s Linda Medalen during the Women s Soccer World Cup semifinals in Vasteras, Sweden, June,15 1995. Norway defeated USA 1-0 and are ready for the final in Stockholm on Sunday, June 18. “The game’s getting smaller and smaller,” she said. “In Europe especially a lot of countries have progressed. The level of women’s football is getting higher and higher.”
In the last two years, games in Mexico, England, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy and elsewhere have drawn record crowds of more than 30,000 for a women’s match, topped by the 60,739 that packed a stadium in Madrid to watch Atletico Madrid beat Barcelona in March. And it shows little sign of slowing. FIFA, soccer’s governing body and the organizer of the World Cup, says the global television audience for this summer’s tournament could top one billion for the first time, which has advertisers rushing to cash in. A record nine countries have expressed interest in hosting the next Women’s World Cup in 2023.
In the Netherlands, where women’s soccer was an amateur sport until 2007, a pro league was formed and a decade later the national team won its first European Championship. When players from Argentina return home from the World Cup, they’ll have an opportunity to play in the country’s first professional league. Most left for France as amateurs.
England’s Lucy Bronze was making pizzas at a Domino’s and sleeping on friends’ couches before England’s Women’s Super League took off, allowing her to make a living from the game.
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