First transgender football team debuts in men’s league in Spain
Fénix FC was founded in 2023 and is made up solely of transgender men
A kick to prejudice that was made… by kicking a ball. Fénix FC, a football team founded in 2023, played its first game in a Spanish men’s Regional League in mid-September this year. This is news because Fénix FC is nothing more than a football team made up entirely of transgender men.
The name Fénix FC, according to Reuters, was not chosen by chance. The news agency says it is a tribute to the mythical bird that symbolizes rebirth. The team played a few friendly matches and seven-a-side football matches last season, but now competes in the fifth tier of the northwestern region of Catalonia, after being integrated into a local club from the town of Sant Feliu de Llobregat, outside Barcelona.
Hugo Martinez, one of the founders of Fénix FC, told Reuters he faced abuse when he began transitioning with hormone therapy to change his gender and was forced to leave the women’s soccer team he played for. “I was a boy playing on the women’s team but without an altered ID, so I was not yet allowed to play with boys,” he said.
It was this history of abuse that led Martinez to launch an online appeal for other trans men, who, like him, were football lovers, to play in a safe environment. And so, after three years and several appeals on social media to recruit players, Fénix FC was born.
Team captain Luke Ibanez, 19, also spoke to Reuters and said he was afraid to play on a team with cisgender (or non-trans) men because he was afraid of not fitting in or even being subjected to violence. “Fenix is a trans team created entirely by trans boys, but I think it’s more than that – a family, a safe space where we can be free and express ourselves however we want and how we truly feel,” Ibanez said
Asked by Reuters, the Catalan Football Federation said its men’s leagues have been mixed for the past two seasons, meaning players of any gender can participate regardless of their official identity. Players can also choose to use a name other than their legal name, it added.
Fénix FC’s first game of the season ended in a 19-0 defeat. However, for the fans, coaching staff and players, the right of trans men to play sport trumps any outcome.
