Two of the football world’s biggest stars Lucy Bronze and Amandine Henry will make their first appearance at the Dubai International Sports Conference on Saturday, ahead of the Dubai Globe Soccer Awards.
The annual football forum and Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiative has been organised under the patronage of Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of Dubai Sports Council, since 2006.
Organised by Dubai Sports Council, this year’s conference is taking place under the theme, “Future Football Accelerators” at Madinat Jumeirah Conference Centre’s Joharah Ballroom, where Bronze and Henry will lead a discussion titled “Empowering Women in Football”, alongside history-making official Stephanie Frappart and Italy’s Sara Gama.
Manchester United and Ajax legend Edwin van der Sar will headline the opening session titled, “English Football Back to the Top”, alongside former England manager Fabio Capello and Ferran Soriano, chief executive of Manchester City Football Club and its parent company City Football Group.
Winner of 11 league and five UEFA Women’s Champions League titles with French club Lyon, Henry, 30, started playing football at the age of 5 but played alongside boys until the age of 13 due to a lack of a girls’ team for her age group.
Bronze, who now plays alongside Henry in Lyon after spells at Sunderland, Everton, Liverpool and Manchester City, has been one of the biggest stars of English women’s football, playing a starring role in the Englishwomen’s third-place finish at the 2015 World Cup as well as the 2019 World Cup, where they finished fourth.
Regarded as one of the greatest right-backs in women’s football, Bronze, 28, has won the PFA Women’s Players’ Player of the Year award twice and earlier this year became the first English football player to win the UEFA Women’s Player of the Year Award.
Frappart, 36, entered the history books earlier this year in August as the first woman to referee a major men’s European match when the Frenchwoman took charge of the 2019 UEFA Super Cup between Liverpool and Chelsea in Istanbul.
Gama, meanwhile, is captain of Italy’s national women’s football team and plays as a defender for Italian club Juventus, where she has won two league championships (2018, 2019) and a Coppa Italia (2019).
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