The Rise of Women’s Football in the Middle East

When 22-year-old Lebanese footballer Layla Iskandar was a little girl, she never imagined becoming a professional player.

“We all had this dream, no? We all wanted to play football with Barca, Real Madrid… but I did not think it was possible for a girl to do it,” Iskandar told More to Her Story.

Iskandar began her journey with football, playing in boys-only teams in her hometown of Zgharta, in the north of Lebanon, when she was just 8 years old. There weren’t any girl leagues for her to join at the time. Today, Iskandar plays for Saudi Pro League club Al-Ittihad, embodying the remarkable progress women’s football has made across the Middle East in recent years. After 12 matchdays, the club sits in the 7th place with 15 points, and Iskandar is the club’s second goal-scorer with four goals.

While women’s football has thrived in Western Europe, South America, and North America since the 1970s, progress in the Middle East has been slower. For decades, the sport remained more of a pastime than a professional pathway for women. That began to shift in the 1990s as national teams formed and domestic leagues took shape. Egypt played its first international match against Russia in 1993, launching its women’s league five years later. Morocco followed in 2002, with Jordan and Lebanon establishing their leagues in 2005 and 2007, respectively.

Saudi Arabia, however, is moving at an unprecedented pace. It’s a piece of the Kingdom’s broader strategy to move beyond oil, with sports expected to account for 10% of its GDP by 2030. In 2019, the Saudi Football Federation created its first Women’s Football Department. Two years later, it launched the country’s first two all-women’s national teams. By 2022, Saudi Arabia hosted its first-ever professional women’s match.

The investment is staggering. Last April, the champion of the Saudi Women’s Premier League took home 2 million riyals ($533,000)—more than five times the prize awarded to England’s Women’s Super League winners. Corporate sponsors have taken note, with PepsiCo’s Lay’s brand and Rexona signing multi-year deals. The money is flowing, the infrastructure is growing, and the message is clear: women’s football in Saudi Arabia is no longer just an afterthought.

According to the Women’s Football Department at the Saudi Arabian Football Federation (SAFF), in 2024, over 77,000 young girls have registered in the nation’s school league, and six regional training centers are developing the skills of more than 350 girls. These centers in major cities like Riyadh, Jeddah, and Dammam were established in 2019 to discover and nurture talent.

Dawn Barnable, founder of MENA women’s sports platform The Mettleset, sees two forces driving the surge in women’s football: the growing global culture around women’s sports and the power of social media, where women are reclaiming their own narratives. In Saudi Arabia specifically, she points to government support as crucial.

“There is a clear link between government-led policies, women in sports leadership roles, and significant investment, which has resulted in the emergence of a new generation of women sports stars,” she said.

The growing strength of the Saudi Women’s Professional League has attracted international stars, including French goalkeeper Sarah Bouhaddi, who plays for Al-Ula; Icelandic player Sara Gunnarsdóttir, who is with Al-Qadsiah; and Nigerian athlete Ashleigh Plumptre, who competes for Al-Ittihad. 

Egyptian footballer Asmaa Ali, who currently plays with Rio Ave in Portugal, was impressed by the infrastructure provided by the Kingdom.

“You have the world-class stadiums, the gyms, the equipment, all of it. They have everything you need to focus on football,” she said, noting that the technical level still needs development.

The visibility of Saudi leagues has further increased through broadcast deals with DAZN, Saudi Sports Company, and Shahid, surpassing other Arab leagues in media coverage. Last December, a match between Al-Ahli and Al-Nassr drew more than 48,000 viewers on YouTube.

While Saudi Arabia focuses on domestic development, other Middle Eastern countries have seen their players break into the international scene. Morocco made history by becoming the first Arab country to qualify for the Women’s World Cup in 2023. The team has benefited from diaspora talent, including players like Yasmin Mrabet, a Madrid-born professional currently playing with Valencia FC in Spain’s La Liga F.

The breakthrough has opened doors for more Moroccan players in European clubs. National team captain Ghizlane Chebbak joined Levante Las Planas, while Fatima Tagnaout signed with Sevilla. Egyptian players have also made moves abroad, with Sarah Essam playing in Spain and Asmaa Ali recently joining Portugal’s Rio Ave.

“It's only a matter of time before [Middle Eastern leagues] start competing with the Western nations on the global stage,” Ali told More to Her Story.

However, the transition of some professional Middle Eastern players to European football has presented challenges. Ali described her move to Portugal: “I made it to the airport, and it hit me, 'I don't understand Portuguese.' The transition was hard in the beginning. The languages, the cultural differences, having no one I know here.”

Iskandar faced similar challenges during her time with Danish club HB Køge. “It was tough mentally. I was struggling, really. People in Lebanon were sending me messages telling me how proud they were. Maybe this is what kept me going, but I wasn't enjoying my time. I felt lonely.”

The physical demands of professional football also proved challenging. “When they sign you as a foreigner, they expect you to be better than the players already there, but physically I was far behind,” Iskandar explained. Coming from Lebanon, where most clubs train only two to three times a week, she had to adjust to a more intensive schedule, including multiple football sessions, gym workouts, and strict dietary requirements.

Yet Barnable sees a bright future for women’s football in the region. “While private companies and brands have been slower to invest in women’s sports on a large scale in some GCC countries, this is bound to change as the economic and cultural impact becomes clearer and as more women enter into sports sponsorship and management roles,” she said, referring to leagues in the Persian Gulf countries of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

For players like Iskandar, the progress represents a significant shift from previous generations.

“The older generations [of women] were unlucky; they were forced to keep their practice amateur, and the entire society stood against them. But there is no way back now. We can only move forward from here.”