The YouTube sensation taking on Arsenal

Having accumulated 76.2m views and climbing on her Youtube channel, Bara Votikova is a vlogger extraordinaire, as well as being an author, comedian and presenter. She is also a goalkeeper - the Czech Republic's number one - and is set to face Arsenal in the Women's Champions League on Thursday.

Votikova describes herself as "on the one hand a professional footballer, on the other a crazy YouTuber" in the blurb for her book - the title of which translates as 'A Little Different'. The 23-year-old chose to come out as gay in the book, in which she urges readers to "live life exactly the way you want, not take things so seriously and not to be afraid to dream".

So what did the Slavia Prague shot-stopper, who has attracted more than 450,000 subscribers, dream of doing before all this began? "When I was younger, I wanted to be an actress," she told BBC Sport. "I always liked to make other people laugh and happy.

"I didn't make it in to any movies or series, so I explored this world of YouTube. I saw that creators were making their own movies, their own comedy sketches and their own characters, so I started doing them on my own. "I'm building my own path. Maybe one day I'll get to the movie industry and film my own movie." Introducing her videos - which are predominately comedy sketches - she says viewers can "come up with new ideas and find that girls can play football".

Sponsors have quickly followed, from Adidas to Pepsi, accompanied by club success, with Votikova helping Slavia reach the quarter-finals in Europe in three of the past four seasons. Reaching a fourth looks like a tall order this term, with English champions Arsenal 5-2 up on aggregate before the Czech side's trip to Hertfordshire on Thursday. Still returning to full match sharpness after six weeks out with a thigh injury, Votikova sat out that first leg, but is expected to start at Borehamwood. Regardless of the outcome of the last-16 tie, she is proud of the team's record in Europe.