We had some fabulous questions for our lady footballers from our lovely Tweeps. And the Glasgow City ladies have come back with equally fabulous and thoughtful answers!Let us introduce you to your pro responders:
Your questions, answered:
[Rachel] Sadly some people still have a very outdated opinion of football. My advice is not to rise to such comments; the women’s game is the fastest growing sport in the world at the moment.
Even the top male players are now very supportive of their counterparts; Lukas Podolski tweeted last week to congratulations the Arsenal Women’s team on their success in the Champions League. Slowly but surely these perceptions will be driven out the game. Keep playing the sport you love!
[Emma] First and foremost sport in general is not limited by gender. Tennis players went through the same situation not so long ago and now look at their top players. I would advise Ruby to ignore the comments and strive to be the best she can be at the sport she enjoys.
[Christie] The same thing happened to me when I was young. Take no notice of it. Football is for everyone. If you enjoy playing don’t let anything or anyone stand in your way.
[Rachel] The combination of education and sport is very important and is something that the Scottish FA strives to improve and currently performance schools have been set up across Scotland in order to do this. It will allow elite players to combine both education and training demands in order to achieve success both academically and within their sport.
This is something that I don’t have much further knowledge on, however from a personal perspective, both education and sport have been important to me and I have always strived to make it possible to achieve as much as I can in both.
As well as being a Glasgow City and Scotland internationalist I have also got a first class degree in Accounting & Finance and am currently training to be a Chartered Accountant with Ernst & Young LLP. Although this has been very difficult and required a lot of hard work and discipline, it does prove that both can be achieved.
[Emma] There is a university and college which link up with the SFA, in which players from the age of 16 can have a full time education and attend training sessions along with strength and conditioning sessions. In addition to this there are performance schools set up around the country, where selected children can attend high school for education and football development. I’m sure there is nothing to stop a football club from forming a partnership with a college or university.
Stay tuned for more answers over the next week! Find out more about women’s football and Helena Pielichaty’s fab book ‘Here Come the Girls’ here.
