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MY BEACH SOCCER 
Find out about the story that has brought Melissa Gomes to the top of women’s beach soccer
Born in Nogent-sur-Marne (France) on the 27th of April of 1994, Melissa Gomes is one of the most efficient goalscorers of the worldwide beach soccer panorama. Although born and raised in France, where this secondary school teacher leads a brilliant footballing career, Portuguese genes are to be found in her DNA, as his father and grandparents are from Portugal, a national team she has already been capped for.
Daughter to a builder and a train system worker, Melissa began his career, as many other girls, playing in boys teams. He loved football since her very early years, and was one of those kids that always had a ball on her feet, everywhere she went.
When she was just 9 years old, she joined UMS Pontault-Combault, a team with only boys and one girl coached by her cousin. At that very early age, that step already became a big challenge, and playing with and against boys would be one of the reason of their maturity and growth as a footballer: “I have learned a lot from playing with and against boys only. It made me work harder physically, I had to be strong in the 1 on 1 and I really enjoyed that challenge”, she explains.
Althought she explains that has always felt respected when in the pitch, she obviously had to overcome the stereotypes and some comments and jokes from both teammates and opponents. “They used to call me princesinha (little princess)… But then they saw me play and were surprised about how strong and skillfull I was. There was no difference between the boys and us two at that point”.
She kept playing with the boys until she was 15, when she was transferred to a women’s side. In her career at women’s football, she can already count three promotions to France’s top division: One with FCF Juvisy (currently Paris FC), one with VGA St-Maur, and the last one, which she has recently accomplished with her actual team, Stade de Reims.
Moreover, she was one of the youngest players ever to be capped with Portugal U19 National Team, when in 2010, at only 16, she wore the National Team jersey for the first time.
Beach Soccer, and Nazaré, have always been there…
Beach Soccer has always been in her life, as her romance with sport began during her summer holidays, which she spent in (believe it or not) Nazaré, when she came to visit her father’s family in Santa Catarina.
After playing on that beach for so many hours during her childhood, she came back to it as a professional player some years later, becoming the top scorer for the competition with CSO Amneville. It was not her first experience in the Euro Winners, as she had already played with ASD Terracina Femminile before, and was also part of the Portuguese National Team that took part in the first ever Women’s Euro Beach Soccer Cup, back in 2016, in Cascais.
Beach Soccer has given her the chance to see another side of the sport she loves the most, and admits that “I love beach soccer because although it’s still football, it’s a complete different way of playing”. Well, another way of playing which she also masters, as we have been seeing over the past years, and what we will also have the opportunity to do again this coming week, when she hits the sand in Nazaré to lead Stade de Reim’s attack at the 2019 Euro Winners Cup.
