To help celebrate Black History Month, throughout October we’re speaking to a handful of key figures at Watford Football Club about the work they do, how they entered their role, and the recent global spotlight on racial equality.
With the month coming to a close, we spoke to Watford FC Women winger Adekite Fatuga-Dada, who also works as a Duty Officer for the Watford Community Sports and Education Trust.
First joining Watford in June 2007 as a 10-year-old, Adekite Fatuga-Dada is one of Watford’s longest-serving players. The skilful dribbler and excellent passer has spent 14 years at the club over two spells, either side of a short stint at Arsenal, and has made a major impact both on the pitch, and representing the club off it.
During the week, Fatuga-Dada works as a Duty Officer for the Watford CSE Trust in the Meriden Community Centre, helping young people every day. As someone who grew up loving the game, she feels grateful to have the opportunity to work with youngsters who dream of playing at Vicarage Road as she has done, and have the same ambitions she had as a child.
In her youth, it was her uncle who was her first role model, and who ignited her love of football.
“He was the football-mad one in the family and he used to take me everywhere with him,” said Fatuga-Dada.
“He used to play football so I used to play with him, he’s my youngest uncle as well. When I was born he was like 18 so he had the energy to deal with me! I used to go to his games and be on the side, playing football on my own, watching him and trying to emulate what he did.
“Growing up I supported Manchester United. Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo and George Best [were role models], and when I got a bit older and learned a bit more about women’s football it was people like Rachel Yankey and Kelly Smith who were big role models for me.”
Day to day, Fatuga-Dada’s role as a Duty Officer requires her to oversee many operations at the Watford CSE Trust’s Meriden Community Centre. She works with young people both in and out of sport, a job she finds very rewarding.
“It’s about being in the building, making sure everything is running smoothly and okay on the desk,” she explained.
“I think the most rewarding part of it is having the kids come in after school, they come to the youth clubs and training sessions which is great.
“I was a kid who grew up wanting to play football and be in environments where it’s encouraged so for me to work in a place like that, that can support these kids is amazing and a very rewarding job for me, I’m thankful for the Trust.”
Life as a black footballer can be very difficult, and facing adversity as a female player on top of that is something Fatuga-Dada and her teammates often have to deal with. The winger feels at home at Watford and believes the club do make an impact in the fight against racism and sexism.
Last year, with the message of ‘Black Lives Matter’ in the public eye and gaining worldwide support, Watford FC Women chose to show their support. The players all picked a shirt number with relevance to black history, an idea Fatuga-Dada was touched by.
“It was my teammate Megan Chandler, an amazing person,” she recalled.
“She came to me and Renee Hector and said she wanted to do something, with everything happening over the lockdown, she wanted to do something and make an impact among us and in our community. She came up with the idea of shirt numbers.
“Personally I was very touched by it, it was a teammate of mine who isn’t black that wanted to do something to signify how wrong things are in society at the moment. She’s an amazing person and it was a great thing for us to do, it got us a lot of attention for the right reasons and it was all positive feedback.
“You’re almost discriminated against, not necessarily in women’s football, but in the wider football society just for being a woman, so being a black woman is definitely harder but at the same time I’ve not felt it at Watford. I’ve been lucky in that sense where I’ve been at a club where I’ve never had that worry, but I do know those worries are there.”
Black History Month provides the opportunity to educate people, and promote black history in a place where it hasn’t previously been highlighted. Fatuga-Dada gave an example of her own of how the month educates people.
“Black History Month is a very good thing,” said Fatuga-Dada.
“I was actually in London not too long ago and the TFL put these banners up of black figures and what they’d done, and my friend didn’t know about Mary Seacole. Things like that, it’s what it’s for, it’s to educate people and make people aware of these figures and what they had done.
“Hopefully we get to the point where it won’t be needed and black history will be celebrated every day of the year, but for now you need to highlight it, put it in a month and it’s only a good thing.”
