Football

Game on for girls’ football!

Prolific footballer and sports writer, Jonathan Smith has recently been appointed as a PE teacher at Westholme School. Professional footballer, Jonathan Smith has enjoyed an illustrious career playing for Fleetwood Town, Morecambe FC and most recently, FC United of Manchester. Alongside this success on the pitch, Jonathan Smith has a first class degree in Sports Writing. Most recently, he has been commentating on local BBC radio. We look forward to learning some skills and drills from him.

Charlotte Corrigan interviewed him to discover the secrets behind his success and the highlights of his dazzling career in sport.

At what age did you start playing football and how did you get into it?

It would be my dad more than anything. He took me to football from the age of 6 to a team called Preston North End where I just fell in love with football straight away. I’ve just been playing for as long as I can remember. I think it probably got a bit more serious when I turned 8 and I joined my local club’s team. I just started playing matches and I really enjoyed it from there.

Why should more girls play football?

I think it’s such a good team sport and you can be really competitive. It’s a sport that allows you to really express yourself and be creative. The boys love it, so why can’t the girls love it? Women’s football is moving forward, like with England’s women in the World Cup and the English Women’s Premier League, so it would just be great to see more girls getting involved. I love it so much, I’d just like to think that the girls would too.

Why do you think English woman’s football is not as advanced as women’s football in America?

At the moment, it’s probably due to time because they have been doing it a lot longer. They have had the coaches over there pushing it as opposed to it not really being pushed as much in England. It’s been pushed massively in the men’s game but in terms of the women, it has been a little bit slower. Whereas in America, they have been pushing it for a lot longer with the coaches and facilities allowing the women to play competitively which is ultimately what you need to improve. I think you need competitive football, competing against each other.

It just takes time and I believe it will get there, one of the big English players, Lucy Bronze, has just signed for Barcelona which shows that the players are coming out and as we go, women’s football in England will just get bigger.

What advice would you give to a girl wanting to take up football?

Just give it a go and see if you enjoy it. First of all, it’s about enjoying it and if you enjoy it, you’ll improve because if it’s something you like to do, like I did, you want to improve and you want to put time into it. It’s just about having a go really and enjoying it, don’t put too much pressure on yourself. I say that to some of the young children who try it, don’t put too pressure on yourself to be as good as the next person. Just enjoy it and see where that takes you.

We are so delighted to have Jonathan Smith involved. He’s a key player in Team Girlvanise and he’s giving us the drive to succeed in sport.