Global interest in women's soccer is growing and FIFA hopes over a billion viewers will tune in to watch the Women's World Cup in June. Cameroon's national side, known as the Indomitable Lionesses, was one of three African teams to qualify.
Its star player, Gaelle Enganamouit, was the brain behind RFA - the West African country's first female soccer academy. Her own experience as a young player in Yaounde showed her that it was important for women to have their own space to train, she told FIFA in January.
When Gaelle Asheri first started playing soccer in the dirt streets near her home in Cameroon's capital, she was the only girl on the informal neighbourhood teams which used stones for goal posts and kept score by chalking results on a wall.
Asheri, 17, and her teammate Ida Pouadjeu, 16, are now among the first wave of girls being trained by professional coaches at the Rails Foot Academy (RFA) in Yaounde. It was set up in January to foster female soccer talent in a country where many still see the sport as a man's game.
The academy gets its name from the train tracks that hem the playing ground and turn into informal stands for the local spectators, who gather to watch the girls' teams play all-male sides.
The academy currently trains around 70 girls, most of whom come from poor backgrounds and would otherwise not be able to afford even their own soccer boots, said coach Emmanuel Biolo.
She is studying for her final baccalaureate exams, but the dream for her and Pouadjeu is to play soccer at a professional level like their benefactor.
Both girls initially faced opposition from family members who were worried that the sport was unfeminine. But neither have been deterred by such prejudice.
