“My first experience was certainly disappointing, because so many people around me tried to put me down instead of encouraging me to play,” she says. “But it didn’t stop me from trying to prove that I [could]. I knew this was what I wanted to pursue, and I trained hard to show that I could do better than most of the boys on the field.”

Her parents soon changed their tune. “They now fully support me [in pursuing] my dreams,” Daphne says.

She received her first call-up to the national team for the Asian Games after playing in Indonesia’s highest level women’s soccer competition, the Pertiwi Cup, in 2017.

“Playing for the national team was the best feeling ever, especially on a stage as big as the Asian Games,” she says. “I had dreamt about this since I was a kid.”

Indonesians are crazy about soccer but, as in most other countries, tend to regard it as predominantly a male domain – and that applies to the players themselves, to the league, the Football Association of Indonesia (PSSI) and the fans.

“Afterwards, I learned a lot of things about football and Germany,” she says. “I was only eight years old and thought that maybe at some point I would root for a different team, but nothing has changed.”

“I don’t know why they say that,” Nesya Febi says. “I never like a football player because of their looks but for their talent, so I often argue that women are perfectly capable of liking football, understanding football and playing football.”

Her love for Bayern Munich and the German national team was nurtured when she moved to the German city of Jena in 2012 to study communications. She was based there for seven years and regularly travelled to Munich to watch games at the stadium.

“Do not underestimate female football fans, because they also truly like football and it is their passion,” she says.

Indonesia is now reappraising women’s interest in the game. The PSSI, whose secretary general, Ratu Tisha Destria, is the first woman to hold the position, introduced the national women’s premier league, Liga 1 Putri, in October last year.

Although the Indonesian women’s national football team first took part in the international AFC Women’s Championship (now known as the AFC Women's Asian Cup) in 1977, it was then largely forgotten until the recent renaissance. Then, in 2015, a former Indonesian national team member and midfielder for the Persipura Jayapura club, Rully Nere, was appointed as head coach of the women’s national team.

Veteran sports broadcaster Pangeran Siahaan says there was almost no development of women’s soccer in the country until a couple of years ago, but it has since seen significant progress.

The media has assisted the advance of women’s soccer in Indonesia, Pangeran says. “The fact that there are now live broadcasts of the women’s league indicates that there is an eagerness to really grow and harness women’s football, not only as a sport, but also as an industry. We still have a long way to go, but it’s really encouraging.”

He has seen his fair share of prejudice against women during his career as a football broadcaster. Not only are not women taken seriously as football fans, he says, he cannot recall ever having worked with a female football expert on television.

“When I worked with women on football broadcasts, they were either the host or the quiz presenter with a bare minimum of football knowledge,” Pangeran says. “I know some really knowledgeable female football journalists but I don’t think they’re given enough exposure on TV. Most of the time women are given airtime on football broadcasts for visual purposes only. It’s really a thing that needs to change immediately.”

Daphne also thinks it is time to take a stand in support of women’s football.

“It would be a much better environment if we could spread positive energy and support young girls in football instead of trying to put them down,” she says, noting that most Indonesians are football fans. “I believe if women’s football gets the right support and coverage it would be a very big industry.”

“I am still actively involved in football because I joined a soccer club – yes, that’s what they call it over here – and we play against other school teams around Oregon, which is very competitive for a non-NCAA event,” she says, referring to the National Collegiate Athletic Association, which organises the sports programmes of colleges and universities across the United States and Canada.

“It was a big step for [the Football Association of Indonesia] to start the national women’s football league in 2019 despite what the public said,” she adds. “It’s too bad I had to miss the euphoria because I left for university in September 2019. But football will always be something that I pursue and my goal is to be the first Indonesian to compete in NCAA women’s soccer.”

As for Nesya Febi, who returned to Jakarta last year but now studies at the London School of Public Relations, playing football is not an option. She lacks the skills, she admits with a laugh. But looking ahead, her plans for the future still involve the sport she is so passionate about.

“I have a dream to work for FC Bayern or the German Football Association in their communications department,” she says. “I know this will be hard, but people can always dream, right? And these two aren’t my only target. I’d be happy to join any football club or media company that is related to my favourite sport.”