Gladiators off to Spain

The Brave Gladiators will use the Spain International Football Tournament to improve their game and hopes to secure professional contracts with major European clubs as the Namibia Football Association continues to try and improve women football in the country.

The team, headed by Namibia Football Association President Frans Mbidi, departed for Spain early this week to participate in the upcoming international tournament in Spain from 15 to 20 August 2015. The Gladiators are in Group A together with the ladies teams of Levante and Athletico Bilbao. Group B consists of Valencia, Venezuela and Juventus and only the group winners will advance to the final. Namibia will start off against Levante on 15 August and will two days later take on Bilbao.
Mbidi said the team will go there to learn from the best. “We have a team that have done us proud last year at the CAF Women Championship and these ladies still need to learn more and improve their game. It will an eye opener for most of the players and they will also use the tournament as a window of opportunity to impress the Europeans and hopefully secure overseas contracts. We just want the best for our ladies, they deserve it. They are good enough as well,” Mbidi stated.
“We have a long term plan in place to make it possible for women football to grow. We have a great foundation in place with support from GIZ and UNICEF and other partners and we need to lure in more partners and make resources aplenty for the girls and ladies to enjoy the beautiful game and also make a living from it here at home. We will engage and we are confident we will achieve some success in this long and hard road of women football development,” Mbidi added.
Ahead of their departure, the team received casual gear from the 6mo9 clothing line and were also tested the for fitness.