One of the main storylines for the upcoming soccer documentary, Next Goal Wins, centers around Jaiyah Saelua, a member of Samoa's third gender ( fa'afafine ), who identifies as a woman and is playing on the men's team.
The film follows the American Samoa soccer team, including head coach Thomas Rongen, who promoted Saelua into the starting lineup. Saelua then becomes the first transgender player ever to compete at an international level—at least that's how she was publicized extensively, even by the movie itself.
But Saelua prefers to identify strictly as fa'afafine, not transgender.
"The word transgender is very … Western. That choice of word [is] used by everyone else in the world, but I would prefer to identify as fa'afafine," she said in a phone interview from her home in Honolulu with the Windy City Times.
Jaiyah Saelua is a tough, fearless soccer player, not afraid to slide tackle or do anything else needed on the field to help her team win, or at least try to win.
"I put all my feminine ways aside [on the field,] though I might run like a girl," she said.
Saelua, 25, is one of the focal figures in the inspiring soccer documentary, Next Goal Wins, which will premiere April 19 at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival. The film follows the American Samoa soccer team—the lowest-ranked team for 17 years by international soccer governing body, Federation Internationale de Football Association ( FIFA )—which had not won a single competitive game and scored only twice in nearly two decades.
Saelua is the team's lone fa'afafine, Samoa's third gender.
Her identity was not, and is not, an issue on the team, she said.
Her teammates accept Saelua "100 percent," she said. She added, "I was expecting that because that's just a way of life in the Samoan culture.
However, Saelua confirmed she encountered issues with opposing players "a couple of times," based on her gender identity. Saelua said she felt "like the target on the field and [opposing players] called me names."
But the on-field trash-talking "just made me play harder," she said.
Saelua admitted that "my ways are more feminine," than her teammates. "Growing up, I was more in touch with my feminine side."
But that's not an issue in America Samoa—because "everyone knows who fa'afafine are," she said. "You can try to hide [your identity,] but not all do. And I never tried to hide [my identity] with/to my teammates. They always knew.
Fa'afafine is a recognized identity in Samoan society since at least the early 20th century.
"It's natural in my culture to be accepting [of fa'afafine], so it didn't really mean anything to me that they would accept me—because I thought it was natural," Saelua said. "When I realized the significance of it, and realized that in other places in the world, it's not as accepted [to be transgender], that's when I realized how lucky I was."
Next Goal Wins is the funny, inspiring story, driven by hope in the face of insurmountable odds. After all, the American Samoa team was bad—really, really, bad.
The team once lost 31-0—and this is a soccer game, with scoring by ones, not seven-point touchdowns as in football.
That American Samoa team set a world record for the largest defeat ever in an international match, losing 31-0 to Australia on April 11, 2001.
With Rongen in charge, American Samoa registered its first ever victory, against Tonga in a World Cup qualifier, on November 22, 2011, more than 10 years later.
"I was so excited that we defeated Tonga, with a sense of pride that truly felt like I had accomplished something—for the team and myself personally, too. That [win] made me really proud," she said.
Saelua said she plans to plan for the American Samoa team again in 2015, in key international matches, then focus on her personal life. "I miss playing with my team, which is why I'm delaying my transition. I am going to play next year, then give up soccer and focus more on my transition," she said. "My passion for soccer takes a higher priority than my want to become a woman. I feel like beauty can wait."
Saelua said there is a large transgender community in Honolulu, yet few truly know of her soccer skills. And yes, many likely would be surprised to learn of her level of play, she said.
"The movie was, I thought, very well put together," Saelua said. "Their portrayal of the story of our team was really good, really on point. And also my own personal story, and the story of others, too. I cannot say just one thing stood out the most to me [from the movie]; that's how well I thought it was made. All of it was really good."
Despite the team's struggles to win, or even score, Saelua spoke highly of her time with the team. "Traveling always was fun, as was just spending time on and off the pitch with my teammates. The whole experience brought a lot of good memories," she said.
"It wasn't a struggle that we were a bad team; the struggle was more about trying to develop as players and as a team. Coach Rongen really helped make that easier for us by showing that he wasn't there for any personal gain; he truly, genuinely was there to make us better players. I think that's what made the struggle easier for us."
And did the team improve?
"Yes; I really think so … we won for the first time," she said. "It was a really good experience to win; it felt great. I was very proud of our accomplishment. It might not be as big of an accomplishment as it is for a lot of other teams, but for us, it was really big because we had never won a game and were ranked the lowest [international team for years] in soccer.
"It felt good to win."
Next Goal Wins releases in select cities April 25. Chicago soccer fans can organize their own screenings in theatres and venues via Gathr Films. Through Gathr, anyone — e.g., soccer teams, organizations, youth groups, LBGT supporter clubs — can request a screening of Next Goal Wins, no matter where they live. Visit nextgoalwinsmovie.com/Screenings to request a screening of Next Goal Wins.
