highlights
- Katia started playing football at the age of 21 and influenced Mell, her seven-year-old daughter to follow suit.
- The mother-daughter duo who once played for the same team, now support each other at their respective clubs.
- Katia and Mell Targino are members of amateur football clubs in Adelaide.
In a sporting world mostly dominated by men, it is presumed that the son will inherit the father’s passion for a sport like football.
But who said that passion couldn’t be passed on from mother to daughter?
For Katia and Mell Targino, football is one of the most important links between them.
Love at first kick
“If it weren’t for football, I wouldn’t still be in Australia today, far from my family,” says Katia, a Brazilian who now calls Australia home.
Katia was born with this passion but got an opportunity to play her favourite sport for the first time only as an adult.
“I started playing football for fun. I practised handball, volleyball and athletics,” she tells SBS Portuguese.
I went to play soccer to open a men’s championship and fell in love with it. I was 20 or 21. Now there’s nothing else, it’s just football.Katia Targino
“The other sports fell behind,” Katia adds.
Katia (front row, second from right) when she played futsal in Brasilia as a young mother. Source: Supplied / Katia Targino
Accompanying her mother to the games, it was a matter of time before she developed an interest in playing.
“Everything I do I always involves Melanye. So, I took her to see my games and one day she said, ‘Mom, I want to play’,” Katia says.
“I asked my coach about the possibility of her playing in the boys’ team, and he said, ‘why not’,” says the proud mother.
She started to play and excelled, making the boys sit on the bench. She was about six or seven, and since then, she hasn’t stopped.Katia
Her mother's daughter
Mell’s first football memories are exactly like those described by her mother.
Her memory is that of a curious child, inspired by her mother and her friends, wanting to participate at all costs in the game that she would later take seriously.
“My mother was always an athlete and I always went to watch her,” Mell says.
“I remember seeing her playing futsal. I had good relations with the girls in her team, I always talked to everyone.
“So, I started wanting to get on the court. Sometimes, I asked to kick a ball when they were training – a seven or eight-year-old girl in a team of adults training,” laughs Mell.
Futsal is an indoor game inspired by football but played on a hard court like a basketball court which is smaller than a usual football field. It is popular mainly in South America.
Since then, football has become a core activity for Mell, which she describes as “a world of her own.”
When I step onto the court or onto the field, it’s a different world.Mell
“I am simply passionate and my passion grows every day. Everything I can do in terms of futsal or football, I do,” she says.
I train, I whistle in the game, I take the team to compete in the championship, I play, I do everything. And I don’t intend to stop until I’m 100.Mell
Proud of her daughter, Katia says that today, roles have been reversed as Mell is the one who passes on football tips and teachings to her mother.
“Today, she teaches me. Her football is better than mine,” says the proud mother.
“She started at age six or seven. I started when I was older. So, despite being younger, she has more experience than me in football,” she says sounding moved.
I look at her today and see how much she has evolved. I see her as a warrior, a daughter who is beautiful at heart, body and soul, and a star athlete.Mell_jgoando.jpgKatia
Living football
Playing together, as opponents or cheering for each other, is something that has become commonplace in their lives.
The union amongst mother, daughter and sport goes far beyond the four lines of the field.
Fans of Brazilian football club Fluminense and the Brazilian women’s national team, they look forward to every game of the FIFA Women’s World Cup currently underway in Australia and New Zealand.
For us, football is playing, watching and participating.Mell
“We have played for the same club before we changed. Mum comes to watch my games, I go to watch her games.
“If there is a game that is not a league competition, we play together or against each other. We play casual games with a group of Brazilian women when we are freed up. We are going to watch the World Cup games in Adelaide and the final in Sydney,” Mell says.
So, it’s football, football, football.Mell
Sport becomes support
Football was also important for them in one of the most difficult moments of their lives.
Katia’s mother, Ivette, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2022. That’s when she went to Brazil to spend time with her ailing mother.
During this period, she had to leave her job, aware of the costs the trip would bring her.
Her clubmates created an online crowdfunding page to raise funds and help Katia with her unexpected expenses.
Football goes beyond the court or field. It’s these things that happen that bring us closer.Katia
“A friend of ours decided to do a fundraiser at the club. It was Mother’s Day. They sold raffle tickets with prizes and sold the pink socks like the ones they wore while playing,” says Mell.
The amount collected was approximately $600 which helped pay for Katia’s transport during the period she was in Brazil.
The help came at a good time. The world collapsed when I found out about my mother’s illness.Katia
“I went on a trip to Brazil and found out about the diagnosis. I immediately called my husband and my employer in Australia to say I wasn’t coming back.
“I stayed through the entire process of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. It was very difficult, but she recovered. After all that, the doctor told us that 50 per cent of my mother’s recovery was because I stayed there”, recalls Katia.
Katia on the field for Inter Salisbury, in Adelaide. Source: Supplied / Katia Targino
Back on the field, Katia now plays as a left-back for Inter Salisbury, while Mell plays as a striker for the Sturt Lions, teams that compete in South Australia’s amateur leagues.
They exchange instructions during their games.
It sometimes so happens that I’m watching her game and am running around on the sideline saying, ‘Mom, you’re offside, come back safe and attack’.Mell
The mum is not far behind.
I scream a lot at her, I make the biggest mess and I don’t care. I scream, ‘go, let’s go! And when she scores, I scream, ‘she’s my daughter’.Katia
When asked who is the better player of the two, they laugh.
But the mother answers with pride.
“Melanye is better for sure. I don’t just speak with a mother’s heart. As I said before, she started early, got better at technique, and had more time at it. All that counts. But I think I’m also a good player,” she laughs.
Mell is quick to add: “Yes, she’s good. She’s a great player. Better than many younger girls on the team.”
This interview is part of the SBS podcast series in Portuguese , produced and presented by Mariana Gotardo and Edu Vieira, with support from Luciana Fraguas, Joel Supple and Manoel Costa.
Click to listen to the first episode of the series, with Antonia, a full-back for the Brazilian national team, which is playing its first World Cup in Australia.
To listen to the second episode of the series, featuring Tami, a striker for Macarthur FC in Sydney, who was born in a favela in Campinas and says that football saved her life, click
To follow the series, follow SBS and listen to . Listen to live on Wednesdays and Sundays.
