PARALIMNI: The talented young woman who became a goalkeeper… by chance

Some would call it luck others would call it talent. Eva Koutsofta, however, had both luck and talent since today she is a successful goalkeeper in women's football in Cyprus, having managed to achieve all the dreams a girl has to make a championship.

The 23-year-old goalkeeper has been wearing gloves in front of the beams since the age of five, and after successfully playing for several Cypriot teams, today she feels more proud than ever as with her family by her side, she made her dream come true. That is, to do what he loves and to play football.

"I have been playing football for eighteen years, specifically since the age of five. My brother had a training session at the Poseidonio academy in Paralimni and my mother and I went to see him. My brother's team, however, did not have a goalkeeper and my mother told the coach to put me on because I was playing home with my father. After the coach put me to play, when we finished he told me to start training tomorrow. In fact, the person who promoted me to football was my mother ", Eva Koutsofta initially stated in the interview given on our website, omada.com.cy, to add:" then I played in the Paralimni Youth Union, then in AEK, in Apollon Ladies, in Barcelona FA Women, after a year in THOI and now I am waiting for my next football station ".

Asked about how she experienced football in Cyprus, the 23-year-old goalkeeper said: "It was a strange truth, because in recent years women's football has risen in Cyprus. In the beginning it was strange for everyone to hear that a woman plays football since in Cyprus it is considered a men's sport. I have to say with certainty, however, that it is not a men's sport, but women can do it with comfort. "I want to tell the girls never to give up and start playing football and know that it is never too late."

If she ever felt uncomfortable as a woman in the football world, she answered in the negative to emphasize what: "I have been lucky all these years to have my family by my side and to support me without ever feeling disadvantaged about playing football and I never experienced anything that upset me. "

Following the interesting interview, Eva Koutsofta shared her successes so far. "My first great success was my participation in the National Team of Cyprus and then my participation in the Champions League with the Apollon Ladies team. Then we won the championship, the cup and the super cup with the Apollon Ladies, then I went to Barcelona, ​​where we won the championship for the second year, we reached the cup final but we lost, like in the super cup we lost on penalties. "I had a lot of joys and a lot of sorrows together, but that's the way football is."

Regarding the position of goalkeeper that the young footballer is playing, she said: "fortunately or unfortunately the position of the goalkeeper is to blame, but in football it is important to work, never to give up and I believe that the work shows over the years. There were times when I was blamed but I never took into account the reactions of the people. I knew my job and I knew that at some point my efforts would be rewarded and indeed for the last four or five years I was rewarded since I never stopped training ".

Speaking about her goals afterwards, Eva Koutsofta pointed out that, "I will definitely continue to play football and I will not stop. I have achieved the goals I had set so far with the Champions League, championship, cup, super cup and National. I achieved the goals that every footballer has and I just now want to continue playing football and do what I love ".

Closing her interview, the young goalkeeper commented on the level of women's football and the support of the Federation. "In the last 2-3 years, our Federation has started promoting women's football. This is good because we want to promote women's football for the little ones who have a lot of talent at a young age. And I want to tell the girls that the little ones continue to play football and our Federation from year to year takes big steps to promote the women, since it seems this year with our national team that will go to the Europeans that will be held for the first time . Also, the competition that exists now in our championship shows that we have raised the level ".

Source: Reporter