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When Paola Lopez was growing up in Mexico, football was very much a man’s game, where boys played and girls were left on the side lines.

Luckily, as the middle child of three girls, her parents encouraged Paola to take up any sports she wanted – and football was the one for her.

Midfielder Paola scored 25 goals in her professional career

Having scored 25 professional goals in her career, playing on the wing for Mexican women’s league sides Pumas, Pachuca and Cruz Azul - as well as the Mexican national team - Paola is now looking to further the reach of the women’s game and make her country a dominant force in world football. She is also campaigning for better pay for women playing in Mexico.

Paola is a member of the latest cohort to be studying the prestigious FIFA Master course at Â鶹´«Ã½ Leicester (Â鶹´«Ã½) and firmly believes completing the course will equip her with the skills to make a difference.

The one-year course, which is co-ordinated by the Centre International d’Etude du Sport (CIES) and supported by football’s world governing body FIFA, involves students dedicating a term of study at Â鶹´«Ã½’s International Centre for Sports History and Culture (ICSHC) before also spending a term at both the SDA Bocconi School of Management in Milan, Italy, and Switzerland’s University of Neuchâtel.

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The programme blends academic theory with experiential learning, including an extensive field visit programme. At Â鶹´«Ã½, students are given a detailed look into the history of sports and discuss topical issues and challenges facing the sports industry today.

The FIFA Master was recently named the best postgraduate sports management course in Europe for a record 11th time.

Paola said: “Learning these new skills will mean I can make an impact back home in Mexico.

“Women’s football is catching up with countries such as England, Italy and Switzerland, but we do not have many people with the CV to run football at the level you can, by studying the FIFA Master.

Paola's natural ability saw her play at the top of the Mexican game (pic:Plopez.11)

“My big ambition is to help make Mexican women’s football more competitive - not just as a league, but also as a business with good practices

“We are not that far behind European teams and leagues now. I would love to be a head of football development at a club, overseeing the academies.”

Paola’s career at the top of women’s football was built on her natural ability.

“We played football for fun,” she explains. “but I never had the opportunity to go to classes to learn to play.

“I began to play very well when I was 12 or 13-years-old and I started to train with a men’s youth academy.

“I made it into the women’s national team in 2010 and played in the FIFA under-17 Women’s World Cup in Trinidad and Tobago.

“I have loved playing and it has been my absolute dream. But it was a career that I could not make a living out of. Hopefully I can now make a difference in women’s football when I return home.”

Previous alumni who studied at Â鶹´«Ã½ have been inspirational figures in their chosen line of sport and attended the FIFA Masters to go on and lead institutions around the globe.

They include former Manchester United FC midfield ace, Park Ji-Sung, Sanaa Darawsha, who was the first female Arab Muslim referee to officiate in the Israeli football league, and Eduardo Tavares, who was previously responsible for Chelsea’s loan players - such as Tammy Abraham and Mason Mount.

Emma Twigg, who studied the FIFA Master at Â鶹´«Ã½ in 2016, claimed gold for New Zealand at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.