This blog post will be different to my previous posts. I will be branching away from the Barclays Premier League and will discuss academy football. I recently had the honour of talking to U23 Cardiff City women's defender Maisie Jerrim-Wyse and spoke about what it is like to be an up and coming football star.
Just coming back from physiotherapy the 20 year old from Southampton entered the interview in her Cardiff City training kit and was in a relaxed mood. Jerrim- Wyse has been playing football since the age of six and got into the game after being influenced by her three older brothers. ''Weirdly I just wanted to be like my brothers when I was younger, they all played football and I thought why not? I want to do it and I played in an all-boys team when I was six. Luckily it’s landed me where I am now.''
So where has it landed her now? The talented defender who specialises as a centre back but has the ability to play as a full back and a central midfielder has recently been selected to represent the England universities team. The best 16 players in English Universities are cherry picked to represent England in the home nations. Were they play N Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
A hard working and driven individual trains three to four times a week on top of being a student and having a part time job. The activeness and driven mentality has seen Jerrim-Wyse develop as a leader not only on the pitch but off it too. Before playing for Cardiff City, the girl from the South Coast had been captain of the Bristol City youth teams for four years.
Football is not only Jerrim-Wyse's job but her main hobby. When she was younger she told me
'I did anything my brothers did, it sounds very boyish but I did a lot of skateboarding and
road on a bmx just because they did it. Just so many laddish and boy things
like climbing trees, I spent all my time outside when I was a kid.'
Her main inspiration growing up was Rachel Yankey, OBE. 'I had always looked up to Rachel Yankee who I think is one
of our greatest female players in England. She played at Arsenal and she is
still doing things for women’s football and I always looked up to her. There
would be times when their games would be on TV and I would get a video cassette
and record them just so I can sit and re-watch them back and watch her play.'
Just like Yankey, Jerrim-Wyse hasn't suffered any major injuries. 'I’ve only ever had concussions, sprained ankles. I have
never broken anything touch wood. I am quite fortunate and lucky in that sense.' Her biggest fear in football would be injuring her ACL, surprisingly ACL injuries take part in 40% of sporting events and are more common in the women's game than the men's game.
Football as a whole has always deemed the men's game to be superior to the women's game often leading to multiple debates that women are discriminated in the sport. After asking Jerrim-Wyse if discrimination still took place in the modern game she said
'I think there still is to some extent, but I feel that it
has come a long way. Especially in womens football, the platform has increased
so much in the last six years or so since the 2012 Olympics. That’s when
everything really kicked off and publicitiy for women’s football increased and
improved, there are so many international competitions going on like the She
Believes cup in America right now which is all over social media. Women’s
football is definitely picking up and it continues to do so.'
The versatile player has a bright future ahead of her, if she can keep on working hard there will be no question she will have a great footballing career.
No comments:
Post a Comment