Rosalie Borg managed to stamp her mark in the women’s game at the right time. Earlier this year, Borg, who still features as a player in the Maltese women’s league at Raiders Għargħur became the first woman to obtain the UEFA ‘A’ coaching licence in Malta – such grading enables her to take over teams at the highest levels of domestic football.
It is surely a remarkable feat for Borg in a time when the women’s game is growing in its popularity, including on our shores.
Borg’s achievement reflects UEFA and FIFA’s idea of introducing female faces in administrative roles as they are pushing for further inclusion of women in the Beautiful Game.
The former Birkirkara and Hibernians player has taken on two roles at Raiders. In fact, while serving as a player, she was appointed as the U-19’s girls team’s coach – a step that she feels it was necessary for her coaching career.
“When I was in the thinking process of whether taking on the UEFA ‘A’ coaching course or not, I was not sure whether I had enough knowledge to go through it,” Borg explained to the Times of Malta.
“However, when I decided to go ahead, I had a lot of backing including from Pierre Brincat, the Director of Women’s Football.
“It was a big step because it meant that I would be the first woman but also it would have contributed in pushing more women into the game, both as a player or a coach.”
Borg explained that during that period, she was more involved in men’s football when it comes to coaching as she was at the helm of the U-15’s team of Ħamrun Spartans, where she was backed up by club legend Stefan Sultana.
“While doing this course, I was really supported by Stephen Grima as well as Paul Zammit and (Stefan) Sultana who were fellow colleagues at the National Sports School,” Borg underlined.
Asked about how challenging it was for her to complete this course as the only woman, Borg explained how her male colleagues were very welcoming and supportive during that period.
“I never felt any type of inferiority complex despite being the only women doing this course,” the Raiders player said.
“Given the difficulty of this course, everyone helped each other and not because I was a female but because a team effort was needed to achieve our targets. I felt the same throughout all the courses I did.”
Raiders experience
Throughout her playing career, Borg has played 187 games in the women’s top-flight including 116 appearances while at Raiders, with whom she scored four goals as well.
“I have been involved with this club for around 16 years with the exception of a short spell where I left because I felt at that point I could not win any silverware with Raiders, therefore I had to make that big step,” she explained.
“However, I cannot stop thanking our former president Paul Midolo as with his backing and help, this club remained on its feet while helping female players to develop year after year.
“With Raiders participating as Raiders Għargħur, we feel that the club has made another big step towards it objective of becoming more competitive.”
Borg highlights the importance of youth development at the club as they will look to strengthen the foundations for the senior team for years to come.
However, while she is confident that such playing time will help the players to improve, Borg feels that this is a situation that needs to be addressed.
“With the U-19’s league being played on Sundays and the seniors play on either Tuesday or Wednesday, we are not giving enough rest to our players to recover.
“This is not an ideal situation for their development and needs to be tackled quickly to preside over their health and growth as players.”
NEXT FIXTURES
PLAYING TODAY
Mosta Ground: 8.15pm Kirkop United vs Hibernians.
Dingli Ground: 8.15pm Swieqi United vs Mosta
Mġarr Ground: 8.15pm Birkirkara vs Raiders Għargħur.
Standings: Mġarr United (6 games played) 13; Birkirkara (5) 13; Swieqi United (5) 10; Raiders Għargħur (5) 5; Kirkop United (4) 3; Mosta (4) 2; Hibernians (5) 1.
MD7 bye: Mġarr United.