When I spotted myself on a giant billboard
for Nike, I couldn’t avoid shedding a tear –
I have an agreement with them to visit small
neighbourhood clubs and meet young kids,
to give them gear and make the women’s
game more visible. Everything that I lacked,
now they can have.
I don’t want to be seen as a case, but I’m
happy to be a bridge that connects all the
people who feel discriminated against. The
life expectancy in South America is 75 years
old, but for the trans community it’s only 41
thanks to a mixture of suicide, police abuse,
prostitution, crime and poor access to proper
healthcare. There’s still much to be done to
prevent exclusion and change this. Knowing
makes us responsible, as Lorena always says.
Freedom is a basic right, and it’s our right
to choose. Legislating against transgender
athletes is going against human rights – it’s
as simple as that. We don’t have a disease.
One more trans girl or boy in a club is one less
on the street, or experiencing dark thoughts.
Feelings have no sex, no gender. You want to
play football? Then go and play football.
I’ve been very lucky to get to know many
parents who tell me things like ‘Thank you,
you’ve inspired us’ or ‘My girl started playing
football because of you’. I’ve received loads
of messages from teenagers saying they’ve
now got hope after hearing my story. That’s
such an amazing emotion and a good reason
to speak up.
I’ve achieved a lot, but I still have dreams.
I’d love to play for either Paris Saint-Germain
or Barcelona, or even in England. And I’d like
to be signed as Mara Gomez the footballer.
That’s who I am.For more information and support on LGBTQ+
issues in the UK, head to stonewall.org.ukhappened to me in 2021. I know what Juan
Sebastian Veron means for La Plata and what
his name represents. I also knew that the
club was all about values and discipline, so
I felt incredibly honoured.
This year I also completed my studies and
qualified as a nurse. I’m now travelling to the
hospital every morning and to training in the
afternoon. On weekends, it’s matchday. I’m
exhausted, but so happy. Finally, I am.
As a nurse, you help people; at least being
able to treat someone who collapses on the
street, or even on the pitch as we’ve seen this
year with Christian Eriksen.
Patients treat me with respect, too – I need
to emphasise this because it wasn’t always
the case. I still have haters on social media,
but in general the situation has improved.
Work is one thing and football, well, remains
a recreational part of my life; the part that
helped me to release the pain. I want to win,
of course, but that doesn’t mean I forget the
important part of it.Clockwise from
below left Mara
with her mum;
twisting, turning
and scoring for
Villa San Carlosinside, even if I feel like a bit of a lab rat. There
are still no serious reviews about the impact
of certain treatments on high-performance
transgender bodies.
In Argentina now there is new legislation,
the so-called Micaela Law, that requires at
least one per cent of public office jobs to be
filled by trans people. I wouldn’t like to have
a trans quota in sport, even if it allowed me
to skip the treatment. Instead, I dream about
an open sport, non-binary, where everybody
stops dissecting people because of penises
and vaginas. That starts from the bottom of
the pyramid, not from the top. It starts with
education and with visibility. I know we won’t
achieve this in the short-term, but we should
at least aim for it.
Speaking about equality, since women’s
football doesn’t allow you to make a living –
another thing the richest and most popular
sport in the world should explain one day –
I carried on studying. I knew it was my only
chance to progress in life.
Things aren’t anywhere near as tough as
they were when I was first offered a game
in the street. I’m a No.9 and I like to dribble.
My idols are Marta and Megan Rapinoe, who
I admire also for the hard work and support
she gives to the LGBTQ+ community.
Joining Estudiantes, a club with so much
history, was one of the beautiful things that
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