It is safe to say that in the last number of years the women’s game has seen an increase in popularity.
Today, the FA have unveiled their new “ambitious” women’s and girls football strategy titled ‘Inspiring Positive Change’.
It hopes to achieve eight objectives by 2024, including: improving early and development participation, club/player pathway links, and to create the best professional women’s sports leagues and competitions in the world, to name a few.
Winton Wanderers however, are already paving the way for girls’ Football in Salford, and have been doing so for some time.
Club Chairman Lee Egan explained how the club have been welcoming girls of all young ages since the clubs formation.
“When we first started in 1996, we had a few girls who were coming to training,” he said.
“It was always hard back then to put the girls into teams because they were all of different ages, as you couldn’t categorize them into their age groups.
“As time has progressed, the women’s leagues progressed, through the world cups etcetera, it’s boosted everything to do with girls’ football.
“Currently at the moment we’ve got nine girls teams, and also an academy for four to six year old girls.”
The club has over 140 girls’ playing for them, which make up a large proportion of the clubs total of just over 400 players.
This makes them one of the largest clubs in Salford, and also one of the largest girls’ Football clubs in Salford too.
Mr. Egan knows how well the club is doing for the community and how it is improving all the time.
“Since England did well in the World Cup, the actual grassroots of women’s football has improved,” he explained.
“I remember we did an interview with ‘Radio 5Live’ before the Holland semi-final and we had some of the girls down, some of the coaches down and they all did interviews.
“You could tell from them how much the girls are enjoying it, the girls are loving it because they’re getting out, being part of a team, being part of a group.”
One of the main things Mr. Egan highlighted about the club is the friendships and the bonds formed between the girls within the club.
“All these girls are actually making friends and socialising without even realising what effect that these friends they make will have on their life,” he said.
“These girls are going to be best mates for the rest of their lives, and it all comes from being together and being a part of a team.”
Whilst the new strategy by the FA hopes to achieve it’s objectives by 2024, it is clear that Winton Wanderers are already actively helping the women’s game with their incredible number of talent already playing the game.
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