⁍ Faiza Heidar grew up playing soccer in the streets with the boys.

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⁍ She went on to captain Egypt’s national women’s team.

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⁍ Now she has become the first woman to train one of the country’s professional men’s clubs.

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– Faiza Heidar grew up playing soccer in the streets with the boys, and went on to captain Egypt’s national women’s team. Now she’s become the first woman to train one of the country’s professional men’s clubs, Reuters reports. “There is usually some mockery at the beginning,” the 36-year-old says. “But then they realize that they will learn something, that they will develop their skills.” She’s also the first Egyptian coach—male or female—to gain the Premier Skills Coach Educator status, certified by England’s Premier League. Soccer remains an overwhelmingly male sport in Egypt. “I would tell her not to go,” Heidar’s mother says. “She would say: ‘No, I will go.’ She loved the sport.”