Footballco announce first Saudi Women’s Football Awards

Footballco, have announced that the inaugural Indivisa Saudi Women’s Football Awards winners to be revealed in May. (Supplied)
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Updated 08 March 2026
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Footballco announce first Saudi Women’s Football Awards

  • Roshn Group confirmed as exclusive presenting partner, with the awards to be announced after the 2025-26 season ends in May

RIYADH: Football media and culture company Footballco have announced the launch of the first Saudi Women’s football awards, with the winners to be revealed in May.

The Indivisa Saudi Women’s Football Awards will recognize the best of women’s football in Saudi Arabia, both on and off the pitch.

From April, fans will be able to vote for shortlisted players and personalities, with the final stage involving a panel of industry experts. The awards ceremony will take place in May, following the culmination of the 2025–26 Saudi Women's Premier League season.

The awards go beyond the event, with supporting content across Footballco’s portfolio of Arabic-language football brands, including Goal, Kooora and Indivisa. These reach over 170 million Arabic speaking fans monthly, of which more than 20 million are in the Kingdom.

The first Indivisa Saudi Women’s Football Awards will be proudly presented in partnership with ROSHN Group, Saudi Arabia’s leading multi-asset class real estate developer and a Public Investment Fund company.

The award categories include:

On-Pitch

Player of the Year

Young Player of the Year

International Player of the Year

National Team Player of the Year

Team of the Year

Goal of the Year

Off-Pitch

Most Influential Woman of the Year

Style Icon of the Year

Local Hero of the Year

Female Football Executive of the Year.

Footballco has supported women’s football in the Kingdom since 2023, when it launched an Arabic version of its women’s football culture brand, Indivisa, the first media brand dedicated to women’s football in the Middle East.

This was followed by Yalla Girl in 2024, the first and only Arabic digital show designed for the women’s game. Since its launch in May 2024, Yalla Girl has amassed more than 100m views. More recently, Footballco launched the Indivisa website in Arabic in 2025, making it the first and only Arabic website dedicated to women’s football.

Outside its own platforms, Footballco produced Destined to Play, a feature-length documentary for FIFA and the Saudi Arabian Football Federation, which follows the journeys of aspiring female Saudi players. It is currently streaming on FIFA+.

Andy Jackson, Footballco’s Middle East senior vice president, said: “We’re excited to be celebrating the growth of women’s football in the Kingdom and those who have helped it to grow at a rate we’ve not seen anywhere else and we would like to express our gratitude to Roshn Group for their support in establishing this important event and milestone in the trajectory of women’s football in the Kingdom.

“Women’s football is no longer niche. In 2025, we saw 250 million video views of our Arabic women’s football content, and when we surveyed the fanbase, the message was clear: They wanted the women’s game to be celebrated and recognized in its own right, not as a footnote to the men’s game. This drove our vision to create this new annual event, and I’m delighted it’s a vision that was shared by Roshn.”  

The Saudi Women’s Football Awards follow a period of great growth for women’s football in the Kingdom, which began with the launch of the Saudi Women’s Premier League in 2022. At a grassroots level, 77,000 girls now compete in the annual Girls’ Schools League and there are more than 1,000 qualified female coaches, according to data from the Saudi Arabia Football Federation.


Alonso fears more pain in China with struggling Aston Martin

Updated 58 min 45 sec ago
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Alonso fears more pain in China with struggling Aston Martin

  • Fernando Alonso said Thursday he expects another difficult weekend wrestling with his new Aston Martin at the Chinese Grand Prix after failing to finish the season-opener in Australia

SHANGHAI: Fernando Alonso said Thursday he expects another difficult weekend wrestling with his new Aston Martin at the Chinese Grand Prix after failing to finish the season-opener in Australia.
Silverstone-based Aston Martin endured a horror start after serious issues with their Honda power unit and a lack of spare parts.
Two-time world champion Alonso and teammate Lance Stroll had to endure extreme vibration in the chassis caused by the power unit, which was feared could cause the drivers permanent nerve damage.
“The situation unfortunately didn’t change within four or five days since Melbourne, so it will be a difficult weekend,” Alonso told reporters at the Shanghai International Circuit.
“We’ll limit the laps in one or two sessions as we are short on parts. We need laps, to find the window on the chassis side.
“I’ll be happy if we leave China with a more or less normal practice, more or less normal qualifying.”
The Spaniard could not put a timeframe on when improvements might come.
“What can I do within the team? Work harder, help Honda as much as I can,” said Alonso.
“We can allocate resources to help Honda with the power unit. We are one team, it is a bumpy start that I hope won’t last too long.
“We are pushing, we have very talented people in the team, so I hope within a couple of grands prix, we can have a normal weekend.
“To be competitive will take more time. Once we fix the reliability, we will be behind on power and things.”
The 44-year-old veteran has been in Formula One for more than two decades and has driven vastly different iterations of cars from the old V10 petrol engines through to the current complex hybrid configuration.
Despite the issues he said was embracing the challenge of the new cars enthusiastically in what could be his final season on the grid.
His Aston Martin contract expires at the end of 2026.
“Do we enjoy driving these cars? Yes, because we love racing,” Alonso said.
“I do four or five 24-hour races because I love racing and I love driving. So if you jump into an F1 car, you enjoy going fast.
“But it is a challenge, a different challenge.
“I was super lucky to race in (the last) era and I feel lucky to race in both.”