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.


Sabalenka powers past Osaka into Indian Wells quarter-finals

Updated 11 March 2026
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Sabalenka powers past Osaka into Indian Wells quarter-finals

  • Sabalenka wrapped up the first set with two breaks of serve before Osaka began to find her rhythm

INDIAN WELLS, United States: World number one Aryna Sabalenka powered into the Indian Wells quarter-finals on Tuesday, beating former champion Naomi Osaka 6-2, 6-4 in a battle of Grand Slam winners.
It was another straightforward, straight-sets victory for Sabalenka, who fired 31 winners with eight aces.
“Overall I’m happy that I put so much pressure on her, that I brought variety today on the court,” said Sabalenka, who mixed her booming groundstrokes with effective forays to the net.
“I think she was a little confused in the key moments, and I’m happy to see that,” Sabalenka said. “I’m happy that my serve worked well, on the return I played really great tennis.”
Sabalenka wrapped up the first set with two breaks of serve before Osaka began to find her rhythm.
But the Japanese star was unable to crack the serve of Sabalenka, who saved both break points she faced in the second set and grabbed a break for 4-3 with a pair of forehand winners.
It was just the second meeting between the two, both four-time Grand Slam champions.
Osaka won the first back in 2018 on the way to her first major title at the US Open.
“That’s actually crazy,” Sabalenka said of the fact they haven’t met more often. But she predicted there were more clashes in their future as Osaka, now ranked 16th, regains her momentum on the WTA Tour after taking off all of 2023 and having daughter, Shai, in July of that year.
Sabalenka, runner-up at Indian Wells in 2023 and 2025, will continue her pursuit of a first title in the prestigious ATP and WTA Masters 1000 event against either sixth-seeded American Amanda Anisimova or 10th-seeded Canadian teen Victoria Mboko.
Australian qualifier Talia Gibson’s dream run in the California desert continued with a 7-5, 2-6, 6-1 victory over seventh-ranked Italian Jasmine Paolini.
The 21-year-old’s first victory over a top-10 player propelled her into her first WTA quarter-final, where she’ll face either Czech Linda Noskova or Alexandra Eala of the Philippines.
Gibson, ranked 112th, used a late break to pocket the first set, closing it out with her 18th winner of the opening frame.
Paolini sped to a 3-0 lead in the second as Gibson’s errors mounted and it looked as if the experienced Italian, a two-time Grand Slam finalist, had seized control.
But Gibson unleashed a barrage of winners in the third, including a stinging forehand service return on match point.
“Honestly, just completely speechless,” said Gibson, who beat top-20 players Ekaterina Alexandrova and Clara Tauson on the way to the fourth round.