‘I had hard times and this team really gave me back my love and motivation for football,” Kenza Dali says of San Diego Wave as she prepares to open up on a turbulent year.
Over the course of a refreshingly honest conversation, the midfielder reveals why she left Aston Villa to move to the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) in January, details why she is enjoying working under Jonas Eidevall and discusses, for the first time, the grief that affected her participation in the Olympics. There is, however, one topic on which she is not quite ready to go into details yet.
The 33-year-old, who has 76 caps for France, was one of three experienced stars – alongside the former captain Wendie Renard and Eugénie Le Sommer – left out when head coach Laurent Bonadei named his squad for the European Championship. Dali is clearly saddened by the situation but does not want a war of words to distract her compatriots as they prepare for the tournament. “I will tell my side of the story after the Euros, for only one reason – it’s because I have too much respect for my teammates to put the spotlight on a decision that is difficult to accept because I think there are a lot of lies,” she says.
“I really hope they do well. I have too much respect for the jersey to put out my side of the story now. I know it’s going to be everywhere and they are preparing for the Euros and I don’t want to disturb that. But it’s difficult for me because I’ve been playing maybe some of my best football. It’s really difficult to digest because there are a lot of lies in the story that’s been told but I will tell my side after the Euros.”
Dali has good reason to feel proud of her form since moving to California. She has been a key player for San Diego this season, helping them to a flying start. The Wave are second in the table, a vast improvement on their 10th-place finish last term, under the guidance of the former Arsenal manager Eidevall, who was appointed head coach in January.
“When I signed for San Diego a lot of people thought I was crazy,” she says. “They were like: ‘They had a terrible season last season, the environment isn’t great’ … I heard a lot of things. But I’m someone that wants to see with my own eyes and the work of the people behind the scenes has been incredible. The recruitment has been really, really good, and the appointment of Jonas was a massive difference too.
“The funny part is, I heard a lot about Jonas in England and not always nice things. When I joined San Diego, people were like: ‘What is she doing? She’s going with Jonas!’ But I really enjoy the way he is working. He’s really tactical. He really works a lot and San Diego’s performances are credit to him. He built an identity in a short space of time. My relationship with him is great. I’m really enjoying every single minute.”
Dali goes on to express how much she is enjoying coffee by the beach along the Pacific coast after her spells in England with West Ham, Everton and Villa. Her mood is good, which is a contrast to last summer as she competed at a home Olympics feeling upset following a family bereavement.
“I lost someone that I was really, really close to, a member of my family,” reveals Dali, who scored in France’s group-stage victory over Colombia in Lyon to help them reach the quarter-finals.
“I don’t want to say who but that really affected me personally. The Olympics were really, really difficult for me because this person used to be at all my national team games.
“I didn’t want to play the Olympics because I was grieving and it happened two weeks before. My teammates convinced me to stay, Hervé Renard [France’s coach at the time] was amazing to me. I ate with the team and participated with training and meetings and then I was going to see my family. So the Olympics were really tough.”
And then she returned to her club. “After the Olympics I got time off, because of my circumstances, and then I arrived at Villa. I was really happy to come back but the new manager [Robert de Pauw] didn’t want me there,” she says.
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“I still don’t know the reason, but he made it clear that he didn’t want me there. So I was like: ‘Wow, this is a shock,’ because I had been really looking forward to [returning to] Villa.
“I waited until the winter. Then they changed manager again [to Natalia Arroyo after Shaun Goater had briefly been in charge on an interim basis] and my contract was until the end of June, so I went straight to the club and said that I’m staying even if the offer from San Diego was massive [because], for me, Villa was home. But I didn’t feel the club wanted me to stay. They didn’t make me feel that I was a priority any more.”
‘San Diego really put everything in for me to come and, after all that had happened for me, I really wanted to be in an environment that I was valued,” Dali adds. “This is a completely honest answer that I’ve never shared, this is what happened. Jonas really wanted me. He explained to me his gameplan and where he sees me in his system, and he convinced me. I had other offers but I picked San Diego. I’m glad I did it because I’m enjoying my football again.”
Dali, who helped France reach the Euro 2022 semi-finals, is not only enjoying playing for San Diego but, more broadly, playing in the NWSL: “The massive difference is the fact that every team is playing for a title,” she says.
“In England you’re starting the league thinking: ‘I’m going to try my best to finish top five.’ The top four never really change. In America, because of the salary cap and everything that is different here, I feel like everyone has the same level. But I love English football, England is the country of football. That’s why it was really hard for me to leave.“When I start a competition, I want to win as many games as I can,” she adds. “I’d prefer to lose 5–0 but [know I] tried than to park the bus and concede three. This is not my vision of football.
“Our first objective here was to qualify for the playoffs but, as a group, we want so much more. We’re kind of going step by step. It’s a completely brand-new team. With 11 or more new players, what we’re doing right now is unbelievable. I do think we have the team to compete for something big.”