The Sultanate of Oman is now also on a drive to promote women’s football and intends to play its first international match this year. Bausher Club, which was set up in 2005, has been joined by two new clubs, Majan Club and Oman Club, and the aim now is to get regular football underway. A coach has already been found: Haroon Amur Al-Bartamani is an instructor for the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and goalkeeping coach for the men’s team. He accompanied the young women of Oman’s futsal team on their trip to Jordan eight months ago. The previous year, this team gained valuable experience of playing abroad in two outdoor tournaments in Abu Dhabi. Oman is also developing its women’s game in terms of administration. The national football association has set up a women’s committee led by the youthful Buthaima Faisal, whose younger sister Fatima Faisal Al-Raisi plays for Bausher in Muscat. The committee is aimed at developing and promoting women’s football in the Sultanate. The plans even include a dedicated administrative building for women’s football to be situated on the association’s grounds.

Huge honour for Giancarlo Maldonado – as the top goalscorer across the Americas last season, the 25-year-old Venezuelan was presented with the “Americas Golden Boot” by Spanish newspaper Don Balon in Caracas at the end of May. The striker, who is under contract with Mexican club Atlante, scored 26 goals in total. Giancarlo’s predatory instincts in the box can be traced back to his father Carlos, also a striker and scorer of Venezuela’s historic first-ever goal against Brazil in the Copa America in 1989. Carlos Maldonado is now a coach and recently led Deportivo Tachira to the Clausura league title.

The women’s team SC Volksen, a small club in Germany’s lowest league, recently showed their sense of fair play with a unique gesture. In the semi-final of the local cup competition, oppo¬nents Polizei SV Hannover took to the field with only ten players as some of their players had been delayed by work. Volksen’s Turkish coach Cenap Korkmaz explains: “We wanted to win this match fairly and squarely. We wouldn’t have got any enjoyment out of winning the game with an advantage we hadn’t earned on the pitch, and it would have been unsporting behaviour. We want¬ed a genuine sporting contest.” With this in mind, Korkmaz also sent only ten players onto the pitch. His fairness was rewarded – SC Volksen won the match, later played to a finish with 11 versus 11, 4-1, and reached the final of the local cup competition for the first time in their history