CEDELLA! How Bob Marley's daughter saved Jamaican women's football!

This is only the second World Cup edition that Jamaica's women's national team has faced. For years, the team lived through a dramatic story, even disappearing from the FIFA ranking due to inactivity. Even so, in such a short time, it achieved a major feat by drawing with the Brazilian national team, sending our girls back home still in the group stage. Between 2010 and 2014, the country did not even have a women's football national team. But today, if you can watch Jamaica in the World Cup, you need to know that a woman is behind it: Cedella Marley, daughter of none other than Bob Marley. Now 55, Cedella is very well known in fashion and music, but what few people know is that she is responsible for saving women's football in Jamaica. Her "debut" in the sports world, however, happened when she first designed the uniform worn by her compatriot Usain Bolt at the 2012 London Olympics.

MARLEY'S LOVE FOR FOOTBALL

Two years later, Cedella would make history once again. This time in football. Love for football had always been part of her life, since Bob Marley was passionate about the sport. As the king of reggae used to say: "football is part of me. When I play, the world wakes up around me". So there was no other way: he passed that feeling on to his children. Women's football had emerged in Jamaica in 1991, when the "Reggae Girlz", as they are called, played their first international friendly - a 1-0 loss to Haiti. But in 2008, the Jamaica Football Federation shut down the women's squad due to lack of sponsorship and money. At the time of the shutdown, Jamaica ranked 128th in the FIFA ranking. Cedella Marley herself did not know there was a women's team in her country. Until, in 2014, her youngest son, Skip, came home with a flyer that read "Support the Reggae Girlz". The flyer came from Skip's football coach and asked parents to consider donating money to revive women's football in Jamaica. Curious, Cedella decided to investigate and learn more about the subject. She contacted the Jamaican federation and asked what they needed to reactivate the women's squad.

Ver essa foto no Instagram

Uma publicação compartilhada por Cedella Marley (@cedellamarley)

It was truly unfair that the girls were being treated this way just because some people believe football is only a men's game" - Cedella, in an interview with The Washington Post. The needs of Jamaica's women's team, then, ranged from travel and food to housing and training fields. To raise the initial money, Cedella used her musical talent and brought together her brothers, Damien and Steve, to record the song "Strike Hard". She also made the Bob Marley Foundation the team's main sponsor. Cedella also created the initiative "Football is Freedom" to support the development and expansion of women's football at every level. What was born as a project became a movement to value women's football in the country. It was the return of women's football in Jamaica.

The first Caribbean country to play the World Cup

A few years later, in 2019, Jamaica became the first Caribbean country to play in a Women's World Cup. The first match was against Brazil. A 3-0 defeat. In the second, a rout by Italy. In the third, another heavy defeat, this time to Australia, but the "Reggae Girlz" scored in that match the first goal by a Caribbean national team in Women's World Cup history. With football continuing to be valued, Jamaica qualified for another World Cup, this year's edition. This time, they decided to make more history. Again in the same group as Brazil. The first match was against France, and Jamaica managed to hold a scoreless draw. In the second match, the first victory in Jamaican World Cup history: 1-0 against Panama. Cedella celebrated both matches. Jamaica's national team currently occupies 43rd place in the FIFA ranking. Congratulations Reggae Girlz. Once again defying the odds and making history by holding a top team to a draw. The whole world is cheering for you. Jamaica's first point in the FIFA Women's World Cup" - she wrote after the first match.

CROWDFUNDING TO PLAY THE CUP

Even with Cedella's help, Jamaica's team still needed more support even to go to this World Cup edition. The players had to pay for their own luggage, and unfortunately it did not stop there: before the tournament, midfielder Havana Solaun's mother opened an online fundraiser to cover the team's travel costs. So far, US$52,000 has been raised. The goal is US$100,000. Donations can still be made through the link below: