Professional women footballers’ stories of marketing portrayals and sponsorship: “I just had to feel grateful for what I’ve been given”

In this paper we investigate the marketing portrayal and sponsorship experiences of professional women athletes. Specifically, we examine the perspectives of professional women footballers (i.e. soccer) and the ways in which the gender ideal is reproduced, negotiated, and resisted, as well as their (re)imagined equitable sporting future. Using critical feminist narrative inquiry, twelve interviews were conducted with four professional women footballers. Four themes were constructed that call attention to: 1) the lack of commercial sponsorship that limits career growth; 2) performative partnerships that perpetuate inequities; 3) objectifying women athletes through labour exploitation; and 4) limited agency restricts resistance and transformation potential. The findings challenge the concept of sponsorship "partnerships" and expose an exploitative off-pitch reality for women athletes. This study highlights the need for systemic change in professional football for all women to be perceived as legitimate and worthy of investment.