LEARN MORE ABOUT US
Read about the mission behind Football Engine and the people who make that mission a reality.
Our story
Football Engine began in early 2020, founded by Rajesh Kannan and Wiktoria Kornat, with Kelsie Smith joining on soon after as an editor. As the world began to shut down during the pandemic, the founders of the site had more and more free time to expand the Football Engine blog.
As the blog began to grow, our work caught the attention of fans across the world, as well as some journalists and even a few high-profile women's footballers. We began adding to our team not soon after, introducing people like our current FootyFE podcast host Kristian Moe, and our two German women's football experts Laura and Melly. In 2022, we added Borja and Rivka to our team to begin the Barça for All podcast, the first podcast for FCB Femení in English.
It has been over three years since we began, but we are still as committed as ever to delivering quality content for women's football fans everywhere.
Our mission
Starting out, Football Engine began solely covering English and Spanish women's club football, which was (by 2020) fairly niche topic within the America-dominated women's football sphere. As we grew, we realized there was an English-speaking audience for club football content from all around Europe, so we expanded our scope to Norway, Sweden, and Germany. Eventually, our content branched out even further to focus on smaller, lesser-known teams from Asia, the Americas, and Africa. Our goal is to make those uncovered stories be accessible to the English-speaking audience that dominates worldwide women's football.
We also realized soon into our journey that people were wanting to learn about the more hard-hitting parts of women's football that aren't as talked about in the mainstream. Through an assortment of opinion-based articles and podcast discussions about racism, sexism, and corruption within the sport, we gained an audience that was seeking more knowledge about these unfortunate truths. Although that is not the majority of our content, we recognize that these topics are of an extremely sensitive nature, and are committed to presenting them to our audiences with the utmost care, respect, and sincerity possible.
Our contributors
Founder, Admin, Podcast Host, and Writer
Admin, Writer, Graphic Designer, and Podcast Host
Admin, Writer, and Podcast Host
Rajesh Kannan
Rajesh is a writer based in Begaluru, India. He was football Engine's founder in 2020, and has remained as the blog's primary administrator since its founding. Recently, he began co-hosting the Barça For All podcast.
Kelsie Smith
Kelsie is a writer based in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. She began as an editor for the blog, but eventually branched out to writing. She is also the blog's graphic designer on our Twitter, and recently began co-hosting the Barça For All podcast alongside Rajesh.
Kristian Moe
Kristian Moe is a writer and photographer based in Ålesund, Norway. Kristian joined the blog in 2020 as a writer, and has since branched out to podcast hosting and photography.
Founder, Writer
Wiktoria Kornat
Wiktoria is a writer based in Poland. She was one of the original founding members of Football Engine in 2020.
Writer
Laura LaRocca
Laura is a writer based in the USA. She joined the blog in 2021 as a writer who mainly focuses on German women's football. Laura also regularly features on the FootyFE podcast.
Writer
Melly
Melly is a writer and analyst based in Johannesburg, South Africa that specializes in German women's football. Melly joined Football Engine in 2021 alongside Laura, and also regularly features on the FootyFE podcast.
Podcast host
Borja
Borja is a podcast host and football analyst based in Spain. He joined the Football Engine team in 2022 as a podcast host and analyst for Barça for All.
Podcast host
Rivka
Rivka is a podcast host based in New Jersey, USA. She joined the Football Engine team in 2022 as a podcast host for Barça For All, but has been a longtime friend of the blog.