On the 3rd of March, We Make Footballers hosted our first ever Girls Talent ID event in partnership with Chelsea Ladies. Our all-female coaching team energetically managed over 80 girls between the ages of 6 to 13. After a warm welcoming from the WMF team, Coach Evie took the warm-up and the players already started to relax and enjoy themselves. 10 minutes later, players were split across pitches based on age and ability and Coaches kicked-off the matches with our signature Brazilian Samba music in the background.

 

ST MARY'S UNIVERSITY PARTNERSHIP

It’s really important that our coaches and partners provide a source of inspiration for our players and are able to be positive role models.

Our long-standing partners St Mary’s University facilitated the games in their indoors performance hall, a large part of the WMF programme is training both indoors and outdoors so that players develop and learn in different environments. The indoors area challenges players to show-off their skills, technicality, speed and ability to control the ball in tight spaces.

Working with St Mary’s Sports University has been fundamental in creating our Girls Development programme as they have been classified as a high-performance centre for Women’s football. It’s really important that our coaches and partners provide a source of inspiration for our players and are able to be positive role models. In addition to providing workshops to the University, we also supply career pathways to their students and we look forward to continuing to create opportunities for young people in sport alongside the University.

 

CHELSEA L.F.C ACADEMY

We’re really proud to have hosted such a successful event in which these players were given a chance to pursue a future at an elite level in football.

In addition to the Head of Player Development Robert Udberg and his team of Coaches attending the event, Robert talked to the players at the end of each session. Robert gave the groups advice on how to continue challenging themselves to develop, he also told them about how quickly the women’s game is growing and how impressed he was with the standard of football at the event, but, most importantly he encouraged every player to continue playing the sport they love.

A total of 8 players were invited to further training at Chelsea L.F.C Academy and we hope to shortly see some of players at contract signing. We’re really proud to have hosted such a successful event in which these players were given a chance to pursue a future at an elite level in football. Despite our long list of female alumni that have secured contracts at professional clubs, we’re still passionate to continue making a difference.

We Make Footballers are about creating opportunities in football, this is why in addition to partnering with Chelsea L.F.C we also invited a number of local grassroots clubs to scout for new players.

 

WMF GIRLS

Our goal is to increase participation rates in Women’s football, we’re working towards this daily through highlighting the importance of this mission on social-media, creating more and more events such as the Girls Talent ID, partnering with amazing institutions such as St Mary’s University, Chelsea L.F.C and individuals such as @harrietfreestyle, creating a WMF Ladies Team, working towards a 50/50 equal-workforce to have more female role models at each and every session and launching our WMF Girls class!

Our WMF Girls class is for girls ages 7-13 and takes place at St-Mary’s world-class facilities in Teddington Lock, every girl can try their first session free of charge and is welcome to bring along a friend. We train every Wednesday during the school term from 6pm-7pm. We welcome girls of all abilities by creating a fun, safe and nurturing environment in which we play football and make friends. If you would like to come along and try a class, please don’t hesitate to contact us!

2018 is going to be a big year for us, but we’re passionately working every day to create a positive change in our sport and encourage girls of all abilities to get involved in football!

By Eve McBrinn, WMF Girls Development Officer