Interview with Christiana Kiamou

Interview with Christiana Kiamou 

By Nikolas Fil

I had the opportunity to talk with Hellas Verona women's and Greek National team defender Christiana Kiamou. 

We chat all things about women's football in Greece, her ambitions and goals and ways to make the women's game better in our country. 

I want to thank Christiana for this opportunity and for the interview

 

How did you catch the football bug and say that this is what you want to do professionally? Did you have an idol growing up?

 

I don't think I caught this bug, I think I was born with it. My family is all about football and that helped me a lot in getting involved properly and seriously. I hadn't thought that I would do it professionally, I was very young and didn't know any other girls that played football or if there were teams. All these came much later. I didn't have any Football idol growing up.

 

Having played in Greece, Italy and Hungary, what is considered to be the problem in women's Greek football that we do not have such development as in other countries?

 

There are far too many factors that differentiate the leagues I have competed in beyond the facilities and the organisation. 

So far, the treatment I have received from the clubs I competed in abroad is that they treat me like a professional athlete and give me all the resources (material, morally, financially) to do what I love at the highest possible level. 

Women's football in Greece unfortunately has many problems either within society or within those involved in the sport. In order for this to change immediately, Greek female athletes should be given the opportunity to be treated like professionals, as well as better exposure of the sport to the general public. 

Lately I've noticed that many steps have been taken for the development of women's football, is just that there was a delay in the sport's development in Greece and that's why we haven't developed as fast as other countries.

 

How's your season going so far? Are you still achieving the goals you have set at the start for yourself and your team?

 

Our season has started well based on our goals. We want to do better than last year and we are achieving this by playing an attractive brand of football. 

The style of football we play, our coach and everyone involved within the team help to make it easier for us to approach every game as we should, to play the football we want and to keep the team at the highest possible level.

 

Do you have any future goals personal or for your teams, in club or international football that you haven't been able to reach yet?

 

My goal is to constantly improve as a football player and as a person, I would like to continue for a long time to compete at the highest level, always with professionalism and seriousness. 

My personal goal is to help spread the social acceptance of the sport of women's football to the football community.

 

Do you think that there's a chance that the Greek women's football will grow just like the other European countries considering that we already have women footballers, including you playing in big European leagues?

 

We were definitely a little late in development but recently steps have been taken that I personally consider to be for the development we are looking for. We have the athletes and the talent to be on a high competitive level and to be recognised globally, we just have to improve our mindset/mentality and our professionalism.

 

I again want to thank Christiana for this interview and this opportunity.

Hellas Football 

Follow @BVBNikolas