Noon, the Middle East’s homegrown digital marketplace, is celebrating the upcoming FIFA World Cup final with Emirati female footballing talent Houriya Al-Thaheri.
As part of its ongoing noon | women series, noon caught up with the female Emirati football coach, who recently became the first Arab female football expert in FIFA.
“In 2007, I visited the FIFA headquarters in Zurich as a player, and took pictures near the FIFA logo,” said Al-Thaheri. “To now be a part of FIFA, is a dream come true for me.”
Now a technical director in the Women’s Football Committee, Al-Thaheri is also head coach of the UAE’s under-15 girls team, and she is set on nurturing the next generation of female Arab football stars.
It is her passion to help the women of her country, and region, reach their greatest potential by pushing through obstacles. “One of the challenges is that there are not enough clubs for girls, especially in football,” she said.
A true inspiration in her own right, Al-Thaheri holds a football coaching license, which is the highest degree in the Asian football confederation. She also recently authored her first book “Becoming A Legend” — named after the football academy she established in the UAE for boys and girls.
“The idea for the book was to speak about everything, not just my accomplishments, but of all of the support female footballers get from the UAE government. There are a lot of inspirational stories about all the people who have accompanied me in my career, which I wanted to tell.”
The noon | women series has been developed to shed light on the female talent driving change across the region, by telling the stories of these unsung heroes.
