Nadine Ghazi: Let Criticism Fuel Your Motivation
By: Vereena Bishoy
@vereena_bishoy
She hogs the ball, weaves through opponents left and right, and speeds across the field, edging her way to the goal. She strikes.
The ball travels far for mere seconds but it feels like hours to all who are watching in anticipation. The ball strikes through like a bullet penetrating the keeper’s defenses.
Goal!
Nadine Ghazi, an Integrated Marketing Communications junior at AUC, takes in the moment as she hears the crowd cheering her on. Her teammates run up to embrace her; she takes in a deep breath, chest swelling with pride, and gets set to do it all again seconds later.
This is how most matches go for Ghazi, one of the most talented strikers on the Egyptian women’s national football team, who has dreamt of such moments since she was a child.
“I always wanted to pursue a sport, I was good at it, and I had a passion for it … I used it to escape the world,” explained Ghazi.
In the first grade, she would spend her time, daydreaming of being on the field and couldn’t wait till recess to play her heart out till the bell rang again for the next class.
The school coach quickly noticed that Ghazi was the only girl playing football on the field and realized her potential; he insisted that she should go pro.
“If I had to thank some people for my success right now, I would have to thank Mr. Jeff Leathley from [Cairo English School],” said Ghazi.
The Caravan tracked down Leathley to Liverpool and he explained that while Nadine had no experience when she first started, he saw in her determination, passion, and desire to learn, even when he was hard and pushed her to the max.
“She had a determination to succeed no matter what. This desire and passion enabled me to give her the footballing tools to become a great football player. Coaching Nadine was easy because she listened and trained hard,” he said.
“It’s been Nadine’s determination and hard work that has made her successful. I just provided the pathway and the footballing tools for her,” Leathley told The Caravan.
It took Ghazi time to find a place where she felt comfortable playing, and at the age of 12, the AIMZ Girls Football Academy in New Cairo became like a second home.
“It is a lot of pressure to practice a sport professionally at such a young age. I used to get cramps in my lungs and stomach; I used to find it hard to breathe,” described Ghazi.
Luckily, the Academy had a mental health coach who motivated players like Ghazi through their struggles to overcome the nervousness and the pressures of professional sports.
After joining the Egyptian national team for women at just 13, Ghazi moved between that and the under-17 squad more than once.
In 2014, she participated in the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers in Namibia, helping the national team qualify for the main event in Cameroon two years later.
The national team went on to the tournament in 2016 and won one match (against Zimbabwe) out of the three.
“That is one of my greatest achievements, winning a match in the Africa Cup,” said Ghazi, a smile slowly spreading across her face, her head held high.
Unfortunately, these small victories were short-lived as Egyptian women’s football promoter Sahar El Hawari was soon after imprisoned pending trial on charges of fraud.
El Hawari had been the Egyptian Football Federation’s first female member, Africa’s first female referee, and a FIFA member. While serving as a member of parliament, she was convicted of fraud in 2018.
“To me, Dr. Sahar El Hawari is the definition of female football in Egypt,” Ghazi said.
The Egyptian women’s football team took a hard hit after Hawari’s departure and sexism in the industry started to surface since no one was advocating for them anymore.
Ghazi said the team was not being given enough time to train, faced a shortage of adequate resources, and met other challenges which wouldn’t normally happen to the men’s football team.
The women’s national team has been unable to qualify for the women’s football Africa Cup of Nations since then.
But Ghazi didn’t let this put a dent in her stride. She became captain of the women’s under-20 team, which was managed by technical director Ahmed Ramadan. They won a friendly match with Lebanon in 2020.
This was no easy feat as the Lebanese team had more experience and had just won the West Asian Championship. In fact, they had a winning streak until the Ghazi-led team beat them 3-1.
Immediately following their win against Lebanon, disparaging comments were made about the team on social media; soon, the team was being bullied and harassed online.
“Things like bullying and sexism do not phase me; of course, they frustrate me, but they never get to me. In fact, they motivate me sometimes because I work harder to prove them wrong,” Ghazi said.
As the team captain, she had to invest the time to comfort her teammates.
“This is something we have to get used to; criticism is part of the job. This means people are watching us,” she and her coach told the rest of her teammates.
All under 20, with the average age being 16-17 and younger, the online bullying hit hard and was traumatizing to many.
Though there was plenty of negativity, the team received substantial support from celebrities like Egyptian actors Mahmoud Al-Bazzawi and Ahmed Helmy after they voiced their frustrations with people’s responses by initiating a social media movement in support of the young women.
“I got a lot of unpleasant messages; I would open and laugh. But I also got a lot of support from my friends and people I hadn’t heard from in a long time, so it reassured me that what I was doing was right. I never doubted that, but reassurance is always a good thing. All my friends, teammates, and family were very supportive,” she said.
In particular, Dalia Hassan, Ghazi’s mother, who was a goalkeeper at one point in her youth but never practiced professionally, is a staple in her success.
Hassan told The Caravan that she had always seen the athlete in Ghazi since her little feet hit the ground.
“She is a fighter and she is so talented and that is why we give her all our support. We travel with her everywhere whether with her school or her team,” says Hassan.
Hassan encouraged all her children to pursue a sport. But her eldest, Ghazi, would excel in every sport she tried out for; in the end, when Ghazi chose football, Hassan encouraged her because she had a soft spot for the game herself.
“I used to play with my male friends back in school, but of course, they did not take me seriously, and I was not as skilled because back in my day, there was no such thing as a girl playing football, so they would throw me in the goalpost and call me a goalkeeper,” said Hassan.
Ghazi’s journey is part and parcel of Hassan’s own “long and beautiful journey” as she describes it. She, too, worked hard to reach the recognition they had attained so far because there was not much recognition for female football in Egypt when they first started.
“She is a fighter, and she is so talented and that is why we give her all our support, we travel with her everywhere whether with her school or her team,” says Hassan.
With every win, Hassan celebrates, and with every loss or injury, her heart shatters.
“I knew it was not always a comfortable thought for [my mother] to see me do this, she had concerns about me getting hurt, and I knew and understood that this was a struggle for her. But the fact that she adjusted to what I want is a big motivator, because I want to prove to her that she is not wrong, and I want to prove to her that, yes, I will be able to do this and that believing in me won’t go in vain,” explained Ghazi.
Hassan is very much involved with her daughter’s team as she attends all their matches and has developed a rapport with all her teammates.
“My mother achieved the perfect balance between being involved, but not a helicopter parent,” Ghazi said.
