How your Lioness-inspired youngster can get involved in women’s football. England’s Women’s Football side roared to victory and instantly became national heroes. Many little girls up and down the country would have spent their Sunday evening on July 31 hustled around televisions, clapping on their new heroes.
The England Women’s football team, featuring the likes of Lucy Bronze and Ellen White, defeated Germany in the final of the Euros to make history.
In doing so, they became the first English national side to win a major tournament since the men were crowned world champions all the way back in 1966.
While the players have been left with medals around their necks and a big, shiny trophy in their arms, arguably the biggest prize of them all is the incredible knock-on effect their victory might hand down to the next generation of players.
Football has typically been seen as a boy’s game, with few males growing up without the experience of muddy knees and broken school shoes from lunchtimes spent kicking a ball around.
However, in recent years, the sport has increasingly become more accessible for females and the most recent victory from the national side is expected to continue this motion.
Young girls now have a brand new set of heroes to look up to and aspire to replicate.
While the boys scream “Rooney!” or “Beckham!”, as they smash the ball in from 40 yards on the playground, soon we’ll be hearing an equal amount of “Kelly!” and “Toone!”
Get them involved from a young age, If your little one wants to give football a go, then let them.
Exercise, learning how to be part of a team, and spending more time in the great outdoors are all among the positives that come from playing football.
There are many dedicated women’s teams forming up and down the country in recent years and this could even speed up further now.
Take to the internet and find a team nearby and let your daughter go along and give football a go. The worst-case scenario is they do not enjoy it and do not have to return, however, the best-case scenario? You could see her walk out at Wembley in the years to come.