Beyond the pitch: How a girl from Kilifi wrote her way into the heart of a Matilda
MTG United players and staff support the Matildas during the 2026 Fifa Women Series match between Australia and Malawi at Nyayo National Stadium, Nairobi, on April 11, 2026.
What you need to know:
- A heartfelt connection between grassroots footballers and a global star is reshaping dreams for Kilifi girls.
- MTG United’s journey shows how sport can unlock education, empowerment, and global pathways for young women.
When Alex Chidiac scored for Australia's Matildas at Nyayo National Stadium on April 11, 2026, she did not celebrate alone. Somewhere in the stands, a group of young women from Kilifi County erupted. She turned to the crowd and pressed both hands to her heart, not for the cameras, but for them: for MTG United.
That moment between an Australian professional and an amateur club from Kenya's coast was years in the making. It started with a letter. But first, there was the shock of two different worlds colliding. On April 10, a day before that match, Tabitha Isoyi, 22, spent the day with the Matildas and walked away both impressed and quietly unsettled by what she saw.
“I was amazed to learn that the Matildas receive routine physiotherapy. Their physios attend to them before and after training sessions and matches to help with rest and recovery,” says Tabitha, a central midfielder for Moving the Goalposts (MTG) United. “At my team, physiotherapy is only offered as emergency care when a player gets injured.”
There was more. The Matildas have a nutritionist who customises every player's diet to optimise performance on the pitch. “We do not have such a professional in our team,” Tabitha notes. The two clubs exist in entirely different worlds. The Matildas are ranked 15th in the latest Fifa rankings, among the best women's football teams in the world, while MTG United is a Kenyan amateur club based in Kilifi County, currently ranked seventh out of 12 teams in Zone A of the Football Kenya Federation (FKF) Women's National Super League, the country's second-tier women's league.
Meeting at Fifa event
Tabitha's meeting with the Matildas came about because Kenya was hosting one of four inaugural legs of the Fifa Women's Series 2026, a biennial four-team invitational friendly tournament, with Brazil, Côte d'Ivoire, and Thailand hosting the other three legs.
It was also the first time Kenya had hosted a Fifa event. Alongside the Matildas and Harambee Starlets, India's Blue Tigresses and Malawi's Scorchers completed the field. The Matildas won the tournament, defeating Harambee Starlets 2-0 in the final at Nyayo National Stadium on April 15. Earlier that day, India claimed third place with a 3-2 win over Malawi. Both finalists had reached the last stage after wins on April 11; Harambee Starlets defeating India 2-0 and the Matildas beating Malawi 5-0 at Nyayo.
The Matildas, Australia women's national team, celebrate after winning Fifa Women's Series match against Kenya in Nyayo National Stadium, Nairobi, on April 15, 2026.
Tabitha had met the Matildas alongside Dorcas Amakobe and Rita Nindala. Tabitha and Rita, a 23-year-old striker, are both captains of MTG United, while Dorcas is the Executive Director of MTG Kilifi, the sports-for-development community-based organisation that sponsors the club. She has been with MTG Kilifi since 2009, moving through various roles before taking up her current position in July 2017.
“MTG Kilifi was founded in 2001 to create opportunities for girls in marginalised communities in Kenya's coastal region to escape harmful cultural and social practices such as parental abuse, early marriage, teen pregnancy, and female genital mutilation. We achieve this by using a sports-first approach to facilitate their access to education and opportunities to explore career options beyond their current realities,” she explains.
MTG's programmes extend beyond Kilifi County, reaching 9,000 girls aged 9–25 across Kwale, Lamu, Mombasa, and their home county. The organisation works through four pillars—education, football, health, and livelihood—offering mentorship and training in reproductive health, life skills, leadership, economic empowerment, vocational training, and information technology. Many of the girls coming through MTG programmes end up returning.
“About 60 per cent of our employees are alumnae of our programmes, including Fathime Tibu, the coach of MTG United. Noni Mumba, now the Head of Community Engagement at the Kenya Medical Research Institute, also rose through our programmes,” Dorcas says. “Some of our former players like Esse Akida have played for Harambee Starlets and clubs in Europe. Others are currently excelling in the FKF Women's Premier League. We also have girls studying at the University of Oxford on scholarship.”
MTG funds its work through donations and support from national and global organisations, including Common Goal, a charitable movement where professional football players, coaches, and managers pledge at least one per cent of their salaries to a collective fund supporting football-based charities. Dorcas sits on Common Goal's Advisory Board.
It is through Common Goal that MTG connected with Chidiac, an Australian midfielder who has been pledging one per cent of her salary to support the organisation since 2019. She currently plays for Como in Italy and has represented the Matildas 39 times since her debut in 2015. And it is through her that Dorcas, Tabitha, and Rita came to spend a day with the Matildas in Nairobi.
But the connection did not begin with football. It began with a question about sanitary pads. In 2019, a young girl at MTG wrote Chidiac a letter asking whether professional footballers ever had to worry about lacking sanitary towels. “Every year, we encourage girls at MTG to send letters to our donors and partners to share their experience in the programme,” Dorcas says. “The letter touched her so much that she got in touch to see how she could play a more active role in the organisation.”
The letter writer was Rhodah Beja, now 24, who is today a volunteer at MTG, supervising junior coaches and facilitating monthly coaching sessions as a trained coach and trainer of trainers. “I wrote the letter to appreciate Chidiac for providing support that enabled girls from Kilifi to participate in sports and showcase their talent. I also wanted to understand whether professional footballers face challenges similar to ours and how they overcome them to achieve their goals,” Rhodah says.
The Australian midfielder still remembers how that letter made her feel. “For me it highlighted the importance of having programmes that MTG run for communities who don't have the same level of access to supplies or education that I did growing up,” she tells the Nation.
“There are many great organisations like these around the world, but I felt a connection to hearing and reading the stories from the MTG participants and how impactful the programmes have been for them. There are now thousands of women and young girls in coastal Kenya who are challenging the inequalities they face by speaking up and dreaming bigger than what they could have imagined.”
Awareness
From that letter, the two built their relationship through video calls, working together to raise funds and awareness of the organisation's programmes and to shape plans for MTG United's future. One shared vision stands out. “Together with Chidiac, we envision MTG United paying salaries to players one day. Currently, as an amateur club, we can only afford to provide the girls with an allowance,” Dorcas says.
For Tabitha, it would change everything. “Receiving a salary for playing football will be life-changing for me. Beyond helping me meet my daily needs, it will allow me to save and invest, and I can also pay school fees for my younger siblings,” she says.
Chidiac's visit to Kenya finally gave her and the MTG United players the chance to meet face-to-face for the first time. On April 11, a delegation of 23 MTG United players and technical bench officials arrived in Nairobi by train to watch her and the Matildas take on Malawi. “FKF gave us free tickets but we paid for our transport to Nairobi and back to Kilifi the same day,” Dorcas said.
They were in the stadium when it happened. Chidiac, who had gone 1,144 days without scoring for the national team, netted the Matildas' third goal in the 5-0 win and was named player of the match. Then she turned to the stands and made that love-heart gesture—a dedication, unmistakably, to MTG United. “Alex's goal was incredible. We waited so eagerly for it and we thank her for making it happen, because it meant more than a goal to us. We felt loved as MTG United when she dedicated the goal to us. It was really cool,” says Susan Madara, a 21-year-old striker for the club.
Chidiac describes the week in Kenya as deeply personal. “I have always believed football can be such a powerful tool for social change and it has been really special for me to be here in Kenya, as I consider MTG to be a big part of my career and my connection to community.”
For Rita, the week was only the beginning. Through MTG's international connections, she travelled to Australia from April 27–30 to attend the Women Deliver Conference. “Australia will be more than a destination for me. Attending the Women Deliver Conference will provide a platform for my ideas to meet opportunities. It will also be a chance for me to take actions that shape my future. I am looking forward to sharing more about Kenyan culture and learning about others while making new friends.”
A letter from a girl in Kilifi asking about sanitary pads. A love-heart from a professional footballer in a packed stadium. And a young woman boarding a plane to Australia. Sometimes football moves in the most unexpected directions.
