Sofia Zemzemi

Welcome to Belgium, famous for exporting chocolate, waffles, and world class footballers. Emphasis on the exporting. Even the best Belgian clubs aren't real competitors in UEFA competitions. The owner of your new club has big plans, a dubious source of wealth, and connections on three continents. He's decided that you're just the manager to take Kortrijk FC to the Belgian top division and then into European competition. And he thinks he has a plan to do it. Undervalued front office talent in the executive suite in the form of Carole Scibilia a brilliant former goalkeeper for the Swiss women's national team named as the new Director of Football and Sofia Zemzemi, newly hired Head Scout with connections across France and Africa. After an exhaustive coaching search, the owner chose you, not just based on footballing knowledge and your ability to speak French, but also because your little sister plays professionally in the States, and he figures you'll work just fine with the talented ladies he's brought in to run the club. And on that front he's right. You get that women can be undervalued in sports management and there's no reason to doubt their intelligence. But if you had to doubt one of them... it would be Zemzemi. Not that you had a reason to doubt her eye for talent, but could she really have the connections in Africa to make her useful for player acquisition? And that African focus was huge because it's a great untapped source of talent, especially of young players let go by their clubs after aging out of their youth programs and there's even a plan. Which is how you found yourself on a flight to Morocco with Zemzemi to look for prospects at the U-20 African Cup of Nations. And Sofia has been all business briefing you on the prospects she found intriguing... honestly you could've used a nap. Sofia's clearly a hard worker and eager to impress, but she keeps talking about late bloomers with physical talent, not about technical skills or intangibles.