Julia Zigiotti Julia is a midfielder for Brighton & Hove Albion women’s team. Here she is in her own words
Having represented my country at under-17 and under-19 level, I made my senior international debut in 2018 and played for Sweden at the 2019 World Cup in France. In my second season with Albion, I captained the club in the second half of the campaign, making a total of 50 appearances in all competitions. I grew up in Stockholm, Sweden with an Italian mum and Swedish father – I speak both languages. I was four or five years of age when my father used to coach my older brother’s football team. I used to stand on the sidelines watching each week. Eventually, I wanted to play too. We found a women’s team locally and I played with them, but I still played a couple of times with my brother’s team as well. I guess that experience of playing with boys as well as the additional training, gave me that extra edge because, at 14, I was called up by the professional club Bollstanäs SK in Sweden and I played professionally with them until the age of 16. I then joined AIK for a year and then joined Hammarby. My proudest moment was being called up to the Swedish National Team in 2016 and being selected for the FIFA World Cup in 2019 in France. My biggest challenge both personally and professionally is that I have had to give up a lot by living abroad, not seeing family and friends so much. However, I did choose to chase this dream…
If I could give my younger self any advice it would have been to just enjoy the process, encourage myself to have fun Another challenge I had to overcome was to never compare myself to others either on or off the pitch. It was challenging as a young girl wanting to play football because there wasn’t really much professional women’s football broadcast. I didn’t have anyone to look up to. I have seen so many changes since then. These days, there are so many opportunities for young girls to watch women’s football due to the number of games played and being broadcast. Girls can also watch games on social media, this has really helped create role models to inspire them. If I could give my younger self any advice it would have been to just enjoy the process, encourage myself to have fun, not to put too much pressure on myself and to not take everything so seriously. If you push yourself too much you will just stop enjoying it. The most important thing is to have fun and love what you do. This is my second season with the Albion. I captained the side in second half of the season last year and I am looking forward to climbing the table and the league and getting further into the Women’s FA Cup. www.brightonandhovealbion.com www.womensleagues.thefa.com
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