Edna Imade: Her Family as Her Driving Force

“The journey has been very hard, it has been long, but I have a phrase I always tell my friends and everyone around me: when something has cost you a lot to achieve, you enjoy it even more.” This is how happy and excited Edna Imade arrives to the national team, after so much work, effort, struggle and sacrifice that have finally led to a happy ending.

An ending that bears little resemblance to the story behind every step she has taken, every touch of the ball, every goal scored by the Nigerian forward born in Morocco. Her story—above all, her mother’s story—is etched into her, and it is her engine: “The suffering my mother has gone through, everything she has done so that we could be well… I owe her everything. She was about to give birth to two small children, my brother and me, and she decided to give us a better life and cross the Sahara. On the way to Spain, she gave birth in Morocco. She needed the care that any woman who has just given birth to twins needs, so we stayed for three or four months, and then my mother decided to continue the journey to Spain in a patera. We arrived in Algeciras, where a convent of nuns took us in, and that’s where our life in Spain began.”

With goosebumps, the striker becomes especially moved as she recalls a moment as harsh as it is overwhelming—one that has shaped her into who she is today: “Sometimes my mother tells us stories, and one of them hurts me every time I hear it. When she was close to the shore, arriving in Cádiz, a huge wave came and my brother fell into the water, and one of the men in the boat jumped in and grabbed him.”

Everything the Real Sociedad player has endured in her personal life gives her the strength to fight for her professional dream—a passion that began when she was very young, always with her mother’s support: “At school, during recess, I played with the boys, and the PE teacher saw me and told my mother that I played quite well and that she should sign me up for the town team. She wanted to sign me up for flamenco classes, but I only lasted one lesson—I loved football, and she supported me. I have always had her support.”

Flamenco, clearly, was not her path. The ball was. The one she has fought for all her life until she made it—until she could proudly wear the national team jersey and receive her first call-up for Spain: “I knew the call-up list was coming out the next morning, and I assumed I wouldn’t be going. But when I arrived at training, Arturo, my coach, told me I was eligible, and I couldn’t believe it. They played the video in front of everyone and I got very emotional, to be honest. The first thing I thought when I saw my name was, ‘Edna, you’ve made it.’ I cried out of pure happiness.”

At 25, she is certain of one thing: there is something capable of moving mountains and turning dreams into reality—love for family. “Since I started in professional football, my goal has been to take care of them, and I believe God gave me the gift of football for that. I’m going to give everything I have, and whatever I can give to my family, that is what I will do.”