Newest Women's Team Warms Up Shanghai's Football Scene

On Wednesday nights, while most of Shanghai is bundled up in the winter chill, a neighborhood pitch on the city's west side experiences a different season.

Laughter cuts through the air. Someone yells a joke in Spanish. Someone else exclaims, "One, two, three – Inter!" with the certainty of a championship huddle. A warm, obviously Latin wind blows across the field.

FC Inter Shanghai is an all-women's amateur football team that was founded in March. The majority of the players are Latinas: loud, warm, expressive and naturally supportive. The others, from China and North America, have seamlessly merged into the same rhythm.

Football is more than just a strategy guide or a weekend pastime here. It is a mood. A spark. A method of being alive. Most importantly, a community.

A summer project built by two Latin women

The team began with a sudden but very on-brand thought shared by two Latina football lovers: Ceci Perdomo, from Venezuela, and Carolina Gomez, from Colombia.

Both played on university teams, and needed football the way other people need sunlight.

They met in another Shanghai club, became friends, and then had the kind of conversation only two passionate women could have: Why not start our own team? Why not build a community where women can feel free, laugh loud, and play hard?

They talked, and the idea snowballed. By spring, the decision was made.

"We have the power to make it amazing, beautiful!" Perdomo said, eyes bright.

Perdomo had played for a women's team in Beijing and felt that Shanghai was full of women who loved football but lacked a place to gather.

Gomez wanted more than a team. "We come from different countries and different industries, but we wanted a space where women could play freely and laugh freely," she said.

And somehow, in just a few months, the idea became real.

A team formed – multinational, multi-professional and multigenerational. Venezuelans, Colombians, Chinese, Americans. Teachers, planners, office workers and two mothers.

Some had played for years; others had never touched a ball before.

"Let's say half of them – they never played football before," Perdomo laughed. "But they have been improving so much that it's incredible. They're passionate."

Laughter is the common language

On September 11, inside a lively Mexican restaurant called La Diosa, FC Inter Shanghai unveiled its first kits in pink and black, a mix of heat and power.

Their kits carry a logo featuring the goddess Athena, paired with wings referencing Nike, symbolizing a blend of wisdom, strength and victory. It's mythology turned into womanhood, stitched directly onto their chests.

The same energy spills onto the training pitch.

There's Catherine Yu trying hard to focus on tactics but getting easily distracted, and their coach is pointing at her as the whole team breaks into laughter.

There's a chorus of claps anytime someone traps a ball well. There are spontaneous hugs, playful teasing, and a particular kind of chaos that only a group of football-loving women can create.

"We all laugh pretty easily. Like, everybody's always telling jokes," said Nani-Ianis Suarez, an American born in Venezuela.

But none of their behavior means they're just messing around.

The team is part of the Women's International Football League, a four-year-old Shanghai amateur league with 14 teams and more than 250 registered players aged 14 to 47.

This autumn is Inter Shanghai's first real season.

"I mean, personally, I really want to win," Perdomo admitted, laughing with a spark of intensity in her eyes. "And of course, I definitely want to have fun."

Winning required a coach – a serious one. They found him in Mo Elsayed, from Egypt.

Elsayed holds an FA coaching certification and has been coaching for more than 10 years, six of them in Shanghai. He works with several clubs around the city, but Inter Shanghai is the only women's team he trains.

He met Perdomo and Gomez in the spring and instantly felt a strong connection. "We had agreed about everything, and my vision really connected to their vision as well," he said.

Two months into training, Elsayed saw something unusual: "Our strength is mainly in the 'united,' because the ladies are behaving as one all the time."

He laughed as he described them: fast learners, focused, joyful and "dangerously united."

First match: heat, nerves and a lot of heart

On September 14, under a blazing afternoon sun, FC Inter Shanghai stepped onto a full-sized pitch for their first official match. Their opponent: SHU2, one of the strongest teams in the league.

Inter Shanghai had barely two and a half months of real training. They'd taken a break during the summer. They had no reason to expect miracles.

And yet, they held SHU2 to 0-0 in the first half.

The goalkeeper made multiple saves. Suarez blocked attack after attack. Teammates on the sideline screamed themselves hoarse.

"We hadn't trained for long, and we had a break in the summer. We only restarted in September. But that day we did so well," Suarez said. "We supported each other, covered for each other. That trust, like family, mattered more than the score."

The second half was tougher. Injuries and fatigue opened gaps. The opponent scored. But disappointment didn't last long.

Players coming off the field were hugged instantly. Someone yelled, "We held so long! That was amazing!"

Throughout the match, their chant rang out: "Let's go – Inter!"

Elsayed was proud.

"I really appreciate how they play and how they fight for each other as a group."

For Yu, the team's Chinese striker, it was her first match ever.

"I've only played for three months, but standing on that pitch made me so happy. It felt like I was free," she said. Then she added softly, "I hope I can control the ball more steadily."

Suarez described defense as meditation: "Where is the ball? Who is next to me? Who is behind me …" She laughed. "I'm very focused. It's like meditation. I forget all the little things in life."

Gomez, despite five years of experience, still felt her nerves: "It was my first match with my new team, so I am quite nervous."

"But the more you play, the more you get competitive, and you want to give it all," she recalled. "It was very hot, very tough, but in the end, we really did what matters the most: we had fun. We all had fun, and that's the most important thing."

Football as community, not just sport

Most players have full-time jobs. Some wake up at 6am the next day. Some teach on weekends. Some are mothers. Some rush from evening shifts straight to the pitch.

But they still come.

For them, football is more than just a sport. It is their community, their family.

"Football is a team sport. It makes you feel you are not alone; you are part of something bigger," Gomez said. "On the pitch, we are teammates; off the pitch, we are friends. Many times, we are more like family."

The community extends beyond football: dinners after training, drinks after matches, and celebrations during holidays. They even marked Día de los Muertos, a Mexican festival known as Day of the Dead in English, together this month.

"I like being here because no matter my skill level, I feel safe. I feel held," Suarez said.

Perdomo kept it simple: "Do you want to have fun? Come to our team. That's us."

Winter is here in Shanghai. But FC Inter Shanghai's pitch still feels like summer – loud, bright, warm, and alive.

They'll run in the cold, shout in the dim lights, and pile into group hugs after every match.

They'll keep showing the city one truth: women don't need a reason to play. Joy, passion, and community are reason enough.

Or as Suarez put it, "maybe we play differently from men, but we're also skillful."