In the 90s, across the Atlantic, women’s football had a name: Mia Hamm. We owe her in particular the creation of the first American women’s league… Because if there is one thing for which Mia Hamm has always fought, it is the place of women in the very masculine world of football. !
She was born Mariel Margaret Hamm on March 17, 1972 in Selma, Alabama, United States. At the time, little “Mia” did not seem cut out for football: the future football star was born… with a partial club foot.
A handicap which, if it obliges her to wear corrective shoes day and night, does not prevent her from developing a talent which she will make a fortune. It is indeed so”harnessed“that she starts dribbling with her brothers, surprisingly agile when she has not even celebrated her 2nd birthday. Her love affair with football has only just begun.
From the age of 6, Mia joined a mixed Texas team, where she scored twenty-three goals.
At the time, women’s football began its rise in the hearts of Americans. On her scale, and from adolescence, Mia Hamm makes an impression. A kick like his cannot be ignored!
Spotted during school competitions by the director of the women’s football program at the University of North Carolina (the best in the country), Mia Hamm became, at 15, the youngest player to join the national team. No doubt, Mia is an outstanding goalscorer! She will prove it again during her studies, by integrating in 1989 – in parallel with the national team – the team of the University of North Carolina, the Tar Heels.
Mia Hamm: an extraordinary career
When she left college in 1994, Miss Hamm was busy: graduate, named “Atlantic Coast’s Best Female Athlete“In 1993, she allowed her university team to win the NCAA championship four times. A championship that brings together, in the United States, the elite of American football at the university level.
As a university career was not enough for her, Mia Hamm took part in the very first Women’s World Cup in 1991. At 19, number 9 conquered the hearts of the public and became a star in her country. If you are told that Mia Hamm will allow the American team to become world champions that year, will that surprise you? And if we tell you that she did it again in 1999?
On the Olympic Games side, the gifted striker also accumulates titles and victories. She was crowned Olympic champion in 1996 in Atlanta and in 2004 in Athens. Elected two consecutive years “Best player of the year” by FIFA, in 2001 and 2002, she returned her jersey in 2004, after having played 276 matches and scored 158 goals. A track record that makes her the best scorer in the history of football, all genres combined. This world record will be beaten in 2013 by another American player, Abby Wambach.
Mia Hamm: how she democratized women’s football
But let’s get back to Mia who, after hanging up her crampons, does not leave the field. Because she was never able to evolve in a professional women’s club (in her time, there was none), the footballer participated, in 2000, in the creation of the American Women’s Pro League, the Women’s Soccer Association.
Although it only lasted three years, this league paved the way for the feminization of football in the USA. In 2012, the National Women’s Soccer League was born (and continues to this day). Now, in part thanks to the talent of Mia Hamm, women’s football has become an institution in the United States. It is also the first country to have adopted, at the beginning of 2022, equal pay for footballers and footballers. Hat !
Member of the editorial staff of ÀBLOCK!, the media that moves the lines in sport, I am a journalist and author. Practicing yoga in my spare time is a…