Ga-Ae Kang is the winner of the 2024 Player Voice Award, one of three FIFPRO Merit Awards. Sejong Sports Toto WFC goalkeeper and former South Korean international is the driving force behind the quest to improve women’s football and the working conditions of female footballers in her country.
Par Ga-Ae Kang
My twin sister Na-Ru and I started playing soccer in 2002, after the World Cup in Korea and Japan. Our younger brother already played football. I ended up becoming a goalkeeper after I started as a striker.
At first, Na-Ru was the goalie because she’s a bit taller. But as she was afraid of the balls coming at her, I took her place because I was the second tallest on the team. My sister became a striker and played professionally for a year, until she had to retire due to a knee injury.
At the time, it was rare for girls to play football. My parents weren’t happy either. “What kind of girl plays football? In Korea, there was a social prejudice that women were not good at soccer, but I convinced my parents to let me join a youth team because it was fun and I wanted to play.
In Korea, you can only progress as a player in middle school, high school or university. Where we lived, there was no school with a girls’ team where I could develop, so I had to look in other big cities in Gyeonggi Province and the Seoul metropolitan area. And even there, there were difficulties.
Most of my teammates were very serious about football, but we had problems completing the team. The team needed to recruit student athletes who simply wanted to play. The environment was not really professional.
At first, I found it hard to believe that I wouldn’t be able to become a professional, but this time my parents convinced me to continue playing. They told me that I had to take responsibility for my decisions and that encouraged me to continue. I found the pleasure of playing again. I wanted to do it more and more, I got better and better, and that’s what pushed me to continue.
Senegal
