Paula Lugones
12/05/2020 4:19 PM
Clarín.com
Society
Updated 12/05/2020 4:21 PM
The first memory they have with the ball is from when they were 3 years old and began to kick it in the courtyard of the house of some family friends, in La Plata.
From then on, although they had to fight even in court because they were discriminated against for playing soccer, the twins Delfina and Emilia Zolesio, now 18 years old, did not separate themselves from the magical sphere that trapped them forever.
The girls are now fulfilling a dream: from River, they arrived weeks ago at a university in the United States to study and play in the country that is home to the most competitive women's league in the world and where soccer is one of the most popular sports for women.
“We arrived in the United States at the end of August, we quarantined and on September 11 we settled in the University.
They received us very well, also in the team.
We have already started classes and played several games ”, Delfina says excitedly via Zoom with her sister, from the bedroom of the“ dorm ”, the building where they sleep on the campus of Columbia College, in Missouri.
They started kicking in a little field in La Plata.
And then they went to court to fight for equality and their rights.
It was not easy: behind were those
macho insults
that came down in Buenos Aires from the stands when they stepped on the field in a team mixed with children in GEBA, or that horrible day when, before a game, a man approached the mother of the twins and threatened her: “The little ones can't play.
If they don't sit on the substitute bench they will deduct the points ”.
They went home crying without being able to enter the field, but Delfina, red with impotence, felt that she had to go further and implored her mother: "
Get me a lawyer
."
I was 12 years old.
And Diana, the mother, heeded her and in 2014 she appeared at INADI to defend her daughters' right to play.
Judge Carlos Coggi ordered the club "to cease immediately and refrain in the future from executing any discriminatory act based on gender against minors."
They kept playing and as the precautionary measure lasted only one year they were left without a team.
They tried hockey, but one day River's psychologist saw them kicking the ball and invited them to go try out the lower ranks of the club and there, although at that time they were only a few players, the twins developed their football until they arrived to train with the first division in court of 11 and also in futsal.
Clarín
told her story two years ago, a special case among so many other girls who were also discriminated against for playing soccer and had to fight for equality and their rights.
Other times, in River.
One is a midfielder and the other plays 4.
But Delfina and Emilia today took the leap that will mark their lives.
Raised in Palermo, students of Boston College, they always dreamed of studying and playing in the United States, where girls play ball in parks, schools and universities and where some of the most talented players in the world emerged.
With that goal in mind, in their senior year of high school they trained in various soccer camps or clinics in Florida where coaches from all over the country come to spot talent.
Finally, through a specialized agency, the twins chose Columbia College, in Missouri, a university in the center of the country where they could study Sports Management, the career they wanted, and because they also knew that they would be able to play the tournament there , since several university leagues in the United States are suspended by the coronavirus.
“When we arrived, the coach helped us get settled in, introduced us to the team and that same day in the afternoon we started training,” Delfina says enthusiastically.
Everything went very fast.
The next day they were invited to the bench to watch the game that their teammates were going to play.
“We went in sneakers, but they asked us to look for the boots and we entered the court for 20 minutes.
It was incredible, ”he added.
Delfina is a midfielder, playing 5 or 8, and Emilia in defense, usually 4.
They don't even need to look at each other to know exactly how to pass the ball
.
The two debuted that day in the United States and have already played several games.
"We are adapting well," says Emilia.
“Here football is much more dynamic than in Argentina.
They don't have the ball so much, they make everything easier and faster.
It's more physical, they don't use their heads as much.
We understand each other a lot with the girls on the team despite the fact that we have been here recently ”.
They understand each other with their eyes.
They always played together.
And together they fought against discrimination.
In River's youth teams, the twins had been partners with 18-year-old Dalila Ippolito, the talented national team player who was the first Argentine transferred to Juventus from Italy.
Like her, several players from our country decided to emigrate abroad because they feel that in Argentina
they cannot progress, or even live on what they like best
.
The players acknowledge that after the World Cup in France last year - where for the first time the Women's National Team managed to score points and had outstanding performances - there were certain advances in women's football.
“There are things that have changed a lot.
Now the girls are going to play without problems, when we were ashamed at the time, ”says Delfina.
But he does not want to give such a positive view of a reality that is still difficult: “Only AFA first division clubs have 8 contracts with a salary that is that of a first C man and you do not have enough to live.
When we played there, our classmates came from work, they were late in police uniforms, they changed quickly, they went to train, they showered and put their uniforms back on to go back to work.
We were lucky because Mom took us to train, but there were girls who took 5 bondis and sometimes they couldn't go because they had no balance in the SUBE.
That doesn't happen to River's first division men.
They have 4 cars each, ”he says.
Behind, the Monumental.
Before they had played in the Club de Amigos, with boys.
Before they got the scholarship to the United States, the twins finished high school in Argentina and began studying Sports Management at UADE.
They got up at 6 in the morning and went by bus to attend several hours in a row.
At the University where they now play, everything is easier because they train on the same campus.
"Here they accommodate the subjects so that they do not overlap with the training sessions and you have time to study and rest," says Emilia.
Delfina highlights the difference between playing in an American university with Argentine clubs: “Here you train every day.
We have two coaches and three assistants.
If you need to, they sell you for all the training sessions.
If you feel bad, they take you to a room and they put ice on you, they give you massages.
They take care of your diet.
The system is more developed.
Here we are focused on playing soccer and studying.
In Argentina many times you have to choose between playing, studying or working.
”.
The system did not come out of nowhere.
In the United States, women's soccer gained enormous momentum after a law, known as Title IX, was passed in 1972 that prohibited sex discrimination in federally funded schools and universities.
That is why there was a “boom” of girls who signed up in different disciplines that were previously forbidden to them.
So the universities were concerned with looking for talents and paying for their studies so that they could join their teams.
After graduation, the best can go on to play in the American professional league or go to play in another country, but they always leave with a university degree under their arm.
A path full of obstacles.
And dreams come true.
The twins are fans of Estudiantes de la Plata and admirers of Juan Sebastián Verón.
His references in women's football are his former partner Ippolito ("since we were little, he dribbled us and drove us crazy") and Estefanía Banini, the captain of the National Team during the World Cup, who is the only Argentine who played in the American professional league and now he is a member of the Levante of Spain.
They say that they have already begun to adapt socially to their new companions (the majority from the US, except one British and one Canadian), that they have already attended some birthdays and that the boys invite them to watch their matches.
However, they miss family and friends.
And they know that it is a huge advantage to have traveled together.
"I don't know if I would have done it alone," says Delfina.
“Coming alone to a country for the first time, without knowing anyone… but the fact of being together is like you will have something left of the country you left.
She is my sister and she is my friend, it is all together ”.
Thus, two by two, they fulfill their dream.