A woman’s place is… in midfield: my joyful journey into grassroots women’s football

For my 30th birthday last summer, I received not one, not two, but three football-themed gifts. A bright red 2022 World Cup jersey from my sister. A blue and white England shirt, emblazoned with HARRISON 30 on the back, from my friends. And, from my boyfriend, the gaudiest, most garish football socks you’ve ever seen. On any of my previous birthdays, I’d have reacted to football-themed presents with polite bafflement. Until last year, I hadn’t played for 15 years, and I got an F for the sport in my PE GCSE. Since then, I’d barely touched a ball. Obviously, I watched the big games in the pub but my engagement with the professional sport never went far beyond my inexplicable teenage crush on Frank Lampard. But at the start of 2023, all that changed. I began playing on a grassroots team with a group of other women – and I’m far from the only one.

Don’t but women across the UK have been taking up the sport en masse, with teams from Arse-n-All and Inter Melanin FC to Ex-Girlfriend FC and Bend It Like Peckham popping up around the country. (One of my favourite things about is the team names – ours is Big Kick Energy.) Like me, so many new players have been inspired by the stratospheric success of the : England’s women’s team have, of.