Edina Alves, the first referee in a men's World Cup

Brazilian Edina Alves, 41, has earned a place in soccer history.

Specifically, among the pioneers.

She is the first referee selected by FIFA to whistle a match in an international men's championship, the Club World Cup, which takes place in Qatar until the 11th. She made her debut this Thursday as the fourth official in the match between the Tigres, from Mexico, and the South Korean Ulsan Hyundai.

Two more women, also Latin American, act as assistant referees.

The also Brazilian Neuza Back and the Argentine Mariana de Almeida.

Bayern Munich is the favorite.

"If I think about my career, of course, it is a unique victory, but with me there are thousands of women who fight to win in life, in their professions," she told the

a few days ago from Qatar, where she traveled with advance to quarantine before the Cup. FIFA has been adding women to its refereeing staff in recent years.

They have already participated in the Women's Cup and the Men's World Cup in the lower categories.

Being a referee was never a walk for them, nor for them.

Not even in beach games.

This is why Alves is perfectly aware of his responsibility to millions of girls, fans and FIFA officials.

“It is not easy to go ahead because (what you do) can splash whoever comes behind.

If you do it wrong, everything falls apart.

Everyone will say 'oh, women can't stand it' or 'women aren't capable, ”explained this woman who has refereed a dozen matches in the First Division in the aforementioned interview.

Back and Alves have been a team for years in the country that gave birth to King Pelé and Queen Marta.

Last summer the Brazilian duo participated in the Women's World Cup in France.

They referee and train together in São Paulo.

They were selected after the pertinent physical tests.

The news caught them in the car.

They were returning from training when Alves's cell phone rang.

It was a manager of the Brazilian Football Federation who called to tell them they were going to the World Cup.

“At first, I thought it was feminine… only then did I realize it.

I was excited, the whole movie went through my head.

We got out of the car, Neuza hugged me.

Working in a men's competition was one of our goals, ”Alves explained to Dibradoras (dribblers, in Portuguese).

Roberta Nina, one of the founders of this digital medium that covers Brazilian women's sport, details in a message the context because Alves is not the pioneer in refereeing, but Sílvia Regina de Oliveira in the 2000s. “Brazil was one of the Pioneering countries by having a referee whistle in the first national division of men's football (Serie A) in 2006, but after that, we went 14 years without any other woman to repeat the feat.

The one who achieved it was precisely Edina Alves, in 2019 ”, explains Nina.

As a child, Alves' idyll was with the ball.

He played futsal, basketball ... whatever with the ball.

"Eleven football was more difficult because at that time there were not enough girls to build a team, but we made mixed teams," added the referee.

But he soon assumed that his vocation was not to score or stop goals.

She knew she wanted to be a referee, but the history, the tradition, the atmosphere… they held her back.

In the league of the State of Paraná, where she was born, she was qualified to referee and be an assistant, but she only acted as a starter in the grassroots women's and men's matches;

in those of adults, she remained as a linesman.

He decided to take on that secondary role when he joined the ranks of the national federation.

But in 2014 he changed his mind, he went for it with his initial vocation.

The push was given by Back, who has been an assistant for years.

But he had to start from scratch.

His extensive experience as a lineman in the first division of Brazil was not worth to direct parties.

Already installed in the elite and with her sights set on FIFA, she had to start training to become a referee.

The co-founder of Dibradoras emphasizes that 10% of all the people officially prepared to direct or be linesman in matches of the Brazilian soccer confederation are women, "so there is a lot to move forward."

But this other broken glass ceiling.

Millions of spectators will see a woman among the referees of a Club World Cup.