Former professional footballer turned women’s investor Eni Aluko speaks about the rapid growth of women’s football in Saudi Arabia — which has been confirmed as the 2034 hosts of the FIFA World Cup — and the need to prioritize investment for women’s sport. We had the privilege of speaking with her during the Wimena— A sporting journey conference program held in Riyadh, discussing the exciting growth of investment behind women’s sport, how to address online misogyny and racism, and on being the representation you wish to see.
MILLE World: As a qualified lawyer, former professional footballer, established broadcaster, and activist against online misogynistic and racist abuse, you have had an impressive career spanning 30 years. It all began in Birmingham where you grew up playing football from a young age. You often cite football as being your earliest memory so can you tell us a bit about the beginning of your career and how your roots affect your work and activism today?
Eni Aluko: Growing up in the ‘90s, football was just an outlet for me. It was a hobby. It was my quickest way of being accepted with the group of boys in my local area but I never thought that I would become a professional. It wasn’t something on my radar that I grew up thinking it was possible, frankly, because it wasn’t on TV. A lot of my journey with football has been sort of an untrodden path. Playing a sport, I feel like it was a gift. No one taught me how to play. I played in school, and then I played in the local grassroots team, and then I got scouted for England, and my talent just opened the doors for me.
In terms of my background and how that’s impacted me, I think it’s humble beginnings and knowing that and being grateful. Everything that’s happened to me through football is not something that I ever thought was possible. It shows you how far your talent, hard work, ability, mentality, and resilience can take you. I’m super grateful for everything football has given me.
MW: You have spoken before about the importance of representation and how, when you were younger, you couldn’t really aspire to be a professional footballer because you couldn’t see it. Today, however, as a former professional footballer who represented Chelsea, Juventus, and England, you represent the possibilities for many young girls and women, across not just the world of football, but also business industries and social justice fields. What words of advice do you have for others who may not initially see themselves represented in the fields they wish to pursue?
EA: As the saying goes, if you can’t see it, you can’t be it. There is obviously some truth to that. But if you can’t see it, you should try to do it anyway. If you have a gift, you have a talent, and you’re passionate about something that you want to see change, you might be the answer. Don’t be discouraged if you don’t see that representation. Try to become the representation that you want to see. Particularly with women, we tend to sabotage our own dreams. We tend to sabotage what we want because we don’t see other women and we fear those spaces. And those spaces aren’t always easy. Male dominated spaces are not easy at all, but nothing’s going to change if we just leave them be. They’re only going to change if we enter those spaces. If there is no representation, you can be the start of that change.
MW: When you were growing up, there wasn’t the financial support that we see today in women’s football so you also trained as a lawyer and gained a first-class honors degree from Brunel University. Was this where you found yourself gravitating towards public speaking and speaking out for justice, or do you feel this has been a trait you’ve always carried?
EA: I’ve always been somebody who had the courage to speak up when something wasn’t right, whether that’s within my own family, in my friend group, or at work. If I see something that’s not right or is unfair or unjust, I’m not the kind of person that can be silent about it. I like to articulate things in a way where people understand that what’s happening is not right— that’s just the way I’m wired.
In my professional career, it’s about being strategic and saying this is not a good thing and this needs to change so how can I help you change it? People don’t change often without seeing how the change will benefit them so I’ve learned to be an advocate that tries to help others to change, rather than just shame people into changing. Calling things out for what they are is important and if that leads to people feeling ashamed, that’s up to them. If you want to make a long-standing change that’s meaningful, you have to show people why that change will help them or their organization.
MW: Speaking of making a difference, sport is widely seen as a driver for wider social and economic change. With the launch of the Saudi Women’s Premier League in 2020 and over 75,000 girls playing in the annual Schools League to date, many believe that Saudi Arabia is on the cusp of a transformative era. What role do initiatives like these, especially through sports, play in breaking barriers?
EA: It’s really exciting to see just the rapid growth in participation of women’s sport in the Kingdom, and to see the cultural shift is really empowering and inspiring. It just shows that if you put your mind to change, it can happen. If you collectively decide this is what we want to do for women, it can happen very quickly and without lots of resistance. I don’t sense there’s lots of resistance to female empowerment here through sport.
It’s important to talk about the transferable skills that come from playing sports that impact the rest of your life. The confidence that comes, the ability to understand how to work in a team, the resilience, the working under pressure. All of these things naturally happen through sport that you can then apply to being a lawyer, to being an accountant, to working in a business, and to being an entrepreneur. Whether you play sport at professional level, whether you play it for fun, it will always give you the ingredients that you can then apply to your professional career.
There are a lot of women here (in Saudi Arabia) who are in professional careers who will need to hear what it takes to work under pressure, to deal with failure, to deal with success, to communicate, to not have that imposter syndrome. There’s so much that women collectively experience that are transferable experiences from sport into the work sector. I’m really excited to observe and support as much as I can.
MW: We have seen and continue to witness exponential growth in women’s football. A recent study from Women’s Sport Trust found that 85% of existing women’s sport sponsors say they will continue to invest in the coming years. With this in mind, how important are groups such as the Mercury 13 group, where you are currently a strategic advisor and sporting director, in ensuring investment behind women’s football? Where do you see the future of women’s football heading?
EA: Mercury 13 is so key and important for the business investment side of women’s football to keep growing, and for people to have dedicated focus on that investment. For a long time, there’s been a reliance on the men’s game to invest and we haven’t been the main priority. It’s about prioritizing women’s sport, prioritizing the commercial growth of women’s sport, the finance, and the business. It’s been amazing to see so many brands and stakeholders really interested in the growth of women’s football. Mercury 13 wants to continue leading in that.
MW: In 2023, it was announced that the Mercury 13 group was set to invest $100 million in buying women’s clubs. How do you think your experience within football, playing both at a national and international level, has influenced your current role for the Mercury 13 fund?
EA: I was lucky to play domestically, in the UK, and internationally, and I was able to play during that growth of women’s football, when brands started coming in and when stadiums started filling up. I’ve seen that sort of upwards curve, and I’ve experienced that upwards curve. Now, it’s about being part of it going even steeper.
I’ve always taken an interest in the business, in the commercial side of the game and I’m a lawyer as well, and so I was able to work on that side as a lawyer as well. Being part of Mercury 13 brings all of that experience together, as a player internationally, as a lawyer, as a investor and it’s really exciting. It’s a really exciting growth opportunity. There are other investment groups now doing the same—people like Michelle Kang—and that’s what we need, we need all boats to rise at the same time.
