Set sights high advice from City star Isobel
ENGLAND Women’s football international Isobel Christiansen, the 2016 Women’s PFA Player of the Year, told young footballers at the King’s Infant Department to “follow their dreams.”
“Long gone are the days when football was just for boys, indeed, anything was just for boys or, indeed, anything was just for girls, so whatever your dream go ahead and make it happen.”
Currently recovering from an ankle injury, the former Rainow County Primary School pupil popped in to the school on Fence Avenue to tell her young fans, “how I still have to pinch myself every day.”
She said: “I could never have imagined when I was your age that I would be able to have a career in football, but every day as I go to the Manchester City training ground, I have to pinch myself and think how lucky I am to be a full time professional.”
The attacking midfield player, who operates in the pivotal Number 11 role for England and the Sky Blues, says her next priorities are to help Manchester City win the League and England perform well in the Euros next year.
She said: “I learned the game playing in my back garden in Rainow with my brothers when I was just your age and I still have the same sense of enjoyment, even though I train every day from 8.30 in the morning to four in the afternoon and it’s now my job of work”
Isobel is pictured among King’s Infants with King’s young girl footballers Savana Keefe on the right and Poppy Holden on the left.
Both Savannah and Poppy play on the school’s football team and say, “We are just as good as the boys and just as tough.”
Vice Principal and Early Years Leader at King’s Infants and Junior Department Emma Warburton said: “As soon as I told the children that Isobel was coming they were very exited, especially Savana and Poppy. It’s wonderfil to have such a high profile, local role model pioneering the women’s game that our youngsters can look up to and learn from.”