This month at Right to Dream Park, a stadium in a town just outside Copenhagen, Laila El Behery struck an 85th-minute goal that helped secure a 3-1 victory for home side FC Nordsjaelland (FCN) over Finland’s KuPS. In the process, she became the first Egyptian woman in history to score in a Uefa club competition.
El Behery scored again in the return leg in Finland, as FCN completed an 8-2 aggregate win to advance to the next round of the Uefa Women’s Europa Cup.
It was a proud moment for the Egyptian striker, one she hopes is just a small step in her budding career in European football.
“I think it's incredible,” El Behery, 22, told The National over Zoom from her base in Denmark.
“This is something I never even imagined to happen. Obviously, I have such big dreams, but for even a small step of it to happen, the feeling is … I can't even explain it.
“It's really, really nice. But I think, if anything, this made me know how much I really want to continue and how much more I want to do. I think this achievement is pushing me so much to do even more and be the first in so much more. Definitely, it's a great push.”
El Behery arrived at Danish club FCN in February, after spending four years studying and playing college soccer at University of California Irvine in the United States.
Born in Dubai to Egyptian parents, El Behery first started kicking a ball around with her dad, who played recreationally in the UAE, when she was a young girl. Her mother tried to get her into other activities, such as ballet, swimming, or “everything but football,” but El Behery was hooked on the beautiful game.
She moved with her family to Cairo at the age of seven, and played youth football with boys at an academy before she joined Wadi Degla when she was 11. By the time she was 13, El Behery was already playing for the first team at Wadi Degla, who at the time were the dominant force in a relatively weak and uncompetitive women’s football league in Egypt.
At 16, El Behery had a stint at El Gouna club because she wanted to experience a different style of play.
She knew she wanted to pursue a career in football, but with limited pathways and opportunities available at home, El Behery wasn’t sure what her next steps were.
With no real role models she could look up to in women’s football in Egypt, El Behery had to find her own personal reasons to keep pushing towards her dream.
“I think the drive came from the fact that there was no one there to have done it before,” she said. “Growing up, I've heard from many people, like, ‘You can be the first one to do this. You can be the first one, like, Wow! You're very committed'. And not many girls before me have been.
“So I think that drove me more than having a role model. Obviously, in Egypt, we didn't really have role models. So I think that's what drove me the most. That I could be someone to really change the game in Egypt. And that's what I'm really working towards.”
A life-changing moment came when she was approached by a woman named Mariam Hesham, who had a company called Women’s Sports Management (WSM) that helped talented teenagers obtain athletic scholarships at universities in the United States.
El Behery was uncertain if she wanted to go to the US, but Hesham assured her it was the right move.
“Leaving Egypt to go play in Europe professionally is very difficult. They don't really look at Egyptian players as a market. So I had to go to the US as a stepping stone,” said El Behery.
“Since I was a kid, I've always wanted to pursue a career in football. When I was like, 10, 11, I've always been like, I'm gonna be like Neymar, Messi, just big dreams, holding no realistic value to it, just like any kid.
“Once Mariam reached out to me, that's when I was like, wow, someone actually believes in me to help send me to the US. I think her believing in me, that's what pushed me the most.
“Sometimes having one person believe in you is all it takes to change the whole course of your life.”
Leaving behind her home, friends, and comfort zone and living alone for the first time in California was a daunting idea for El Behery.
“I thought it was the end of the world. I thought everything was going to end now. And it was only the beginning of my whole life,” she says.
The first two years at university were challenging for El Behery from both a personal and football perspective.
She admits she grew up “pampered” in Cairo and had to learn the most basic things, like doing her own laundry and cooking her own food. She also came from an environment where she was the best player around and suddenly, she was facing intense competition on the pitch.
“It was definitely a slap in the face. I think the second I stepped into UCI, I realised that there's so many girls that actually play football. So many. And I realised that the expectations that I had for myself, I should raise them. Because the competition is crazy,” she recalls.
“I realised that I have so much to work on, which really helped me grow as a character, as a footballer, as everything.”
El Behery got a chance to start in a couple of games early in her freshman year, which gave her a false sense of comfort that soon dissipated.
“I think my ego got ahead of me,” she said. “And then second year, suddenly I was not really starting that much and I was like, wow, this is really tough. And I think I had a bit of a character growth moment, because I was blaming everyone else and everything else. Like I'm not the reason I'm not starting, it's definitely the coach's problem or definitely someone else's. And I think that year, I was like, OK, you know what? I'm done. I want to leave. I'm not doing this.”
El Behery’s parents and close friends urged her to put her head down and do the work. It took her about six months before she fixed her attitude and approached the situation with the right mentality.
“It took me so much time to figure out that growth takes time,” she added.
“And I think third year came up and suddenly, it's like all the puzzle pieces that I was working on suddenly just fit together.”
Halfway through her college career, El Behery began looking for agents and went on two trials in Europe – one at FCN in Denmark, and one at a club called Albergaria in Portugal.
FCN rejected her at the time, and encouraged her to complete her education. But they kept an eye on her.
When she graduated in December 2024, El Behery did everything possible to prepare herself for the dreaded fear of the unknown that comes with stepping out into the real world post-college.
“I tried to tell myself it's going to be hard. But I think once that moment university actually ended, and I had no club yet, I was losing my mind because I was like, ‘what if?’” she said.
“All the ‘what if’ questions come into mind. What if it doesn't happen? But I think all I could do was just control what I could at the moment. And I just did what I can, reached out to everyone I could. And it just somehow worked out.”
El Behery had strong connections with Right to Dream, the organisation that owns FCN and they decided to give her another shot.
It was a “no-brainer” for El Behery, who felt she had a second chance at a club that had rejected her two years earlier.
“I was very, very excited, very happy. And yeah, I was a little bit scared because I wasn't sure what it's going to be like. Like, am I ready for this? Am I not? And yeah, I'm really happy I took this opportunity,” she says.
Her first six months at FCN were understandably challenging, but once a new season started, El Behery found her footing at her new club, and is already making history on the European stage.
“I started getting more comfortable with the style of play, started getting more comfortable with the players, how everything works, what's needed from me, my responsibilities on the field,” she says.
“And now, I'm really starting to feel more part of the team, really starting to feel like I can do this and be really good at it. I'm just seeing so much growth for myself. And still, I'm excited to grow so much more.”
Right to Dream (RTD) has multiple academies and clubs around the world, in Ghana, Egypt, Denmark, and the United States. El Behery admires how the philosophy of the organisation and its simple and efficient playing style is ingrained in every player at every RTD club or academy.
“I think it's incredible what they're doing, giving the opportunity for these kids, it's incredible. Especially coming from a country like Egypt or Ghana, you can be really overlooked in Europe all the time. But then you're seeing these young kids break through everywhere in Europe, in all clubs. So yeah, it's a great journey to be on, I'm so happy I'm part of this group and I'm so happy I get the opportunity,” she added.
El Behery grew up idolising players like Lionel Messi and Neymar, and is a huge fan of Barcelona and Norway winger Caroline Graham Hansen, and Egypt and Liverpool star Mohamed Salah.
“Because he's given us a path. He’s shown us that it's possible to do it. And that's something I never really believed in completely,” she says of her compatriot Salah, whom she has yet to meet but has every intention of doing so.
She feels great pride in playing for her national team and wants to inspire young girls who wish to follow in her footsteps.
“I have lots of aspirations. I think one of them is to get to and do as much as I can in Europe, play for the biggest clubs I can play for, and with the best players I could and I'm already living that dream,” says El Behery.
“And I think definitely with my national team, my dream is to get to a World Cup one day. Not sure I can do it as a player, I hope so, but if not, I will make sure I do it as a coach.”
