Liv keeps up with the boys
BRITAIN’S best female freestyle footballer can do “keepy uppys” for hours.
Talented Liv Cooke has only been honing her skills for a few years but is already a global star.
Liv, who is the face of Channel 4’s ad campaign for the Women’s European football championships which begin this week, said: “Keepy uppys are the basics you learn when you start freestyle football and it’s got to the point where I never drop the ball.
“I could do an unlimited amount…I could keep doing them until my leg died. I’m pretty sure I could do a marathon doing keepy uppys.
“But freestyle is about a lot more than that. It’s about pushing yourself all the time. There are no limits to what you can do. Your ability depends on the work you put in.
“People never expect me to be as good as the guys. And I love that. People underestimate me and put me down but I thrive on that. It gives me an incentive to prove them wrong.”
Lancashire-born Liv, 18, previously trained at Blackburn Rovers’ Centre of Excellence. When a back injury forced her to take time out she turned to freestyling.
Liv said: “I loved football. It was my first true passion. But then I picked up an injury and I was out of the game. But I could still do tricks in the garden.”
Liv went on to become Britain’s first pro female freestyle footballer and it has taken her around the world.
She said: “I performed in front of 60,000 fans at Wembley.
“I’m also an ambassador for a Uefa initiative called We Play Strong – a campaign aimed at getting more girls into football.”
The women’s Euro finals begin with England facing Scotland on Wednesday at 7pm. Matches are screened live on All 4.