The former England and Arsenal forward Kelly Smith expressed her delight at the number of girls taking part in the biggest football session in schools across the country on Wednesday, with numbers topping 90,000. “It’s huge, 90,000, that just blows my mind,” said the 43-year-old, who was England’s record goalscorer until Ellen White passed her tally of 46 in November 2021.
“I’ve seen an appetite and a hunger from these girls to want to play football. That is really, really pleasing for me because when I first started playing I was the only one in the whole school. Now, you see a whole team coming out, prepared and ready, wanting to learn and want to have fun with it. It’s great to see the numbers going up in every school that I go into.”
Currently, only 63% of schools offer girls’ football in PE and only 40% offer extra-curricular football to girls.
The Let Girls Play campaign, launched by the FA and Barclays, hosted sessions in 1,450 primary and secondary schools as part of an attempt to get 75% of schools offering football for girls in PE lessons and 90% offering extracurricular access to the game by 2024.
“I was a little bit upset with the current figures,” said Smith, who joined the session at Oakington Primary School, which had 200 girls taking part. “I want all schools across the country offering access to football, if the boys have it why shouldn’t the girls have it? Eventually we don’t want to be having days like this, we want just equal access across all schools for girls.”
Smith, who retired from playing in 2017, is still a well-known figure, remembered for her prowess on the pitch and for using that legacy to continue to support the growth of the game.
“As a young girl I dreamt of being a professional footballer, but I had to leave England to do that,” said Smith. “I’m so happy that now we have a full professional league in this country. I just went out and expressed myself, I had fun, I wanted to be the best player that I could be and if people watched me and value me, I love that.
“I like integrating with all the girls, being an inspiration and saying: ‘You know what, if you work hard, if you get your head down, if you listen to your coaches, then anything is possible, the world is your oyster. You’ve got a football session at school in PE or in an after-school club, you’ve got clubs that I can play for and you can be scouted by England.’ There’s a pathway now. Whereas when I first started playing, when I was 16, I was thrown straight into the senior side.”
