She told him never to lay a hand on her again, but she played for that team in Russia for the full season. What annoyed him, a translator relayed, was that this woman sitting on the cold grass was endangering her fertility. He ran over, grabbed her by the ear, using it to pull her to her feet, and screamed at her. The team's coach, a sixtysomething guy, was furious. A few days into her time with the Russian outfit, just before the soccer season started, she was sitting on the grass after a practice, untying her boots. It was geographically remote, but it allowed her to earn a living playing soccer. Unwilling to give up, the young woman signed with a women's soccer team in Russia. Before she could report for duty, the league folded, another failure in the many attempts to establish a women's professional sports league – not just in soccer but in countless other games. In 2012, after an outstanding career with her university team, she was drafted to play in a women's professional league. The young woman isn't famous but she's a very, very good player. Early in Under the Lights and in the Dark, Gwendolyn Oxenham's essential book about women's soccer, the author recounts a story that makes the hair stand up on your head.
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