Steff among top 3 Emerging Global Women writers
By Agencies
A Machakos journalist Steffany Ndei is among the top three global award winners in the Emerging Global Women Writers competition.
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Steff Ndei |
Known locally as Steff, she wrote a personal story of her relationship with football, from a child who fell in love with the game.
The global Emerging Women Writers competition was launched last September to encourage aspiring women football writers. The organisers named the 17 winners from 11 countries.
The 17 selected entries in the initiative will appear in an anthology entitled "Hear Us Roar"– an anthology of emerging women football writers, to be published ahead of the 2023 Women’s World Cup and launched at the 2023 Football Writers’ Festival to be held in Sydney from July 15 to 17.
As part of the prize, three of the writers will also travel to Australia to attend the festival.
The three top contributions assessed by an international judging panel of seven judges are:
1.Olga Bagatini (Brazil) who wrote a profile of Sissi, one of the greats of Brazilian women’s football who was the joint Golden Boot winner at the Women’s World Cup in 1999. Sissi is all but forgotten in her own country’s football establishment and Bagatini wants to give women of Sissi’s generation the recognition they deserve.
2. Steffany Wangari Ndei(Kenya) who wrote a personal story of her relationship with football, from a child who fell in love with the game watching the 2002 World Cup, to a promising player on a college scholarship in the US, to becoming disaffected with the game until she returned to Kenya to coach a boys’ team.
3. Alina Ruprecht (Germany) who wrote a football business piece by profiling FC Viktoria Berlin and how a group of women investors are changing football administration and management in a lower level women’s club, and their ambition to make it to the top level.
Bagatini, age 29, is a journalist from São Paulo who is currently with UN Women working on a project which uses sport to empower women and girls, particularly from the favelas.
“I am absolutely delighted with this opportunity. I can’t wait to represent Latin America at the 2023 Football Writers’ Festival, exchange with writers from all over the world and be able to bring Sissi’s story to a wider audience through the anthology.”
Ndei, also 29, is a journalism graduate from Daystar University, Nairobi currently studying for a Masters degree in Sports Integrity and Ethics and wants to be a sports investigative journalist.
“Bar the disbelief, I am stoked to meet and learn from the heavyweights in the industry of sports journalism as well as the upcoming heavy hitters.”
Ruprecht, age 23, is a political science graduate from Munich who is now enrolled in a Masters degree in European Studies, and hopes to work in football.
“When I received the invitation to attend the Football Writers’ Festival in Sydney, I was completely speechless. This is an incredible opportunity to meet the other emerging women’s writers, and read all the stories that are to be published in the anthology and I am thrilled that the judges appreciated my work.”
The judging panel featured journalists and writers from Australia, the UK, Nigeria, Egypt, and Argentina, including Laura Williamson, Marcela Mora y Araujo, Inas Mazhar, Osasus Obayiuwana
The fourth iteration of the Football Writers Festival will be held in Tar-Ra and Tullagalla, the cultural precincts of Sydney also known as Walsh Bay, from July 15-17th 2023, days ahead of the opening of the 2023 Women’s World Cup.
A list of articles will appear in the anthology Hear Us Roar with the name of the author and their country.
About the Football Writers Festival
Launched in 2019, the Football Writers Festival is more than football, and more than writing and reading. It helps put the ‘game of opinions’ into action in a fun, relaxed and stimulating environment with other people who know and love football.
It aims to bring together a melting pot of authors, writers, readers, and interested voices in a Festival that encourages and inspires meaningful debate and discussion.
The 2023 Festival will be held from 15th-17th July in Tar-Ra (the Indigenous name for Walsh Bay), in the cultural precinct of Sydney, days ahead of the opening match in Australia of the co-hosted 2023 Women’s World Cup.
The Football Writers Festival is an initiative of Fair Play Publishing with the support of founding partner, the Johnny Warren Football Foundation.
