LIFELONG FAN ZELEM HOPING TO STEER HER BELOVED REDS INTO THE TOP FLIGHT

KATIE ZELEM had almost given up on her dream of playing professionally for Manchester United.

Now she is dreaming of leading her childhood team into the women’s top flight in their first year of existence.

As a young girl, she honed her midfield skills on the streets of Oldham.

But, with no girls’ team nearby, she signed up for the local boys’ side, where she dished out a few lessons to those who taunted her for “only being a girl”.

“At first I thought, ‘Why are these big people shouting stuff at me?’” said Zelem.

“You’d hear the opposition manager say, ‘Don’t worry, we’ll beat these because they’ve got a girl’. My team-mates used to stick up for me, but it didn’t matter because I knew I was better than them.”

Zelem was right.

Aged eight, she was signed by United and went straight into the Under-10s.

But the disappointment for the lifelong United fan came as she approached 17.

With no professional women’s set-up at Old Trafford, the only option for Zelem

– after nine years in the Centre of Excellence – was to leave. She said: “I was really disappointed to have to go.

“We had a really good team back then. You’re talking about girls now who play for England seniors and in WSL, and we just had to disperse.”

Some of Zelem’s former team-mates included former Manchester City, now Lyon, midfielder Izzy Christiansen and Everton defender Gabby George.

The United midfielder (below, in training) believes it could have been the red side of Manchester that dominated the women’s game over the last eight years if the team had stuck together.

She said: “Potentially, we could have had the dominance that Manchester City have had in the women’s game. If we’d kept that team together, who knows where it could have been now?”

After a four-year spell at Liverpool and a year in Italy with Juventus, she finally got what she had dreamed of when United set up a professional women’s team.

Zelem, 22, said: “When I left, I remember Emma Fletcher (then-centre director) telling me they’d be back with a women’s team. And I was thinking, ‘Yeah, yeah, that will never happen’.

“As time went on, I thought they had missed the boat completely. I’d been gone five years, so I just thought it was never going to happen.

“But, as soon as I heard, I knew it was great news for the women’s game and, once I knew some of the other girls were coming back, it made my decision even easier.”

Zelem was one of 21 relative strangers that manager Casey Stoney brought together in July. They have taken the Championship by storm, scoring 43 goals in their opening 10 games and conceding just four to top the table at Christmas.

“The way we have all clicked is ridiculous,” added Zelem.

“If I knew the secret as to how we all bonded so fast, I’d write a book.

“Our aim now, for the second half of the season, is to secure promotion, so we can go on and compete in the top division.”