UEFA Euro 2022 Beth England: How England women’s player fell in love with football in South Yorkshire

Part of the England squad for Euro 2022, Beth England, is inspiring girls to play football by supporting her childhood club, based in Barnsley.

England started out at Junior Tykes FC as a young child, playing in an all-boys team with her twin sister.

Paul Görner, current Secretary of the club, said: “Girls and women’s football is getting huge around Barnsley. It’s all because of Beth that we have managed to get so many girls because she has given us permission to use her name.”

The club has now started a girls’ Academy and have entered three different age groups into the Sheffield Girls’ League.

The Chelsea striker has also donated a full Adidas kit, two signed playing shirts and a pair of her own football boots to Junior Tykes.

Her kit was raffled and auctioned off, and £1,000 in funds was raised to go back into the club for the young players.

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Mr Görner said of Beth: “You could see it then that she was special, but not in our wildest dreams did we think she would turn out to be the world class player she is now! We are so proud of her, and we are always quick to make the point that we have a current Chelsea and England striker.”

The Barnsley born footballer also played for the Sheffield United girls’ team and the Doncaster Belles before moving to Chelsea.

Mr Görner added: “Beth started playing with us with her twin sister in 2001 at the age of seven. She did play for a few seasons in the boys team.

“I started our Girls Club Academy in 2021. From that, we now have an Under sevens, Under 11s and Under 12s entering leagues this September. We also have an Under 6s and Under 10s training at the Academy waiting and developing before they can enter a league also.”

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It was while playing for the Tykes, at the age of seven, alongside her twin sister that Barnsley-born England says she discovered her ‘love for football’.

She recalls experiencing a particularly heavy loss during one of her earliest matches for the Yorkshire-based boys’ team. Far from putting her off the game, the Blues attacker reckons the unforgettable drubbing she and her twin experienced made her even more determined to get back out on the pitch.

Beth did an article where she praised grassroots football for influencing her rise to the top of the women’s game after giving away new playing gear to us about two years ago. It was 30 sets of complete strips from Adidas.

In an Instagram post, England said: “Grassroots football helped me fall in love with this game.

“Without it I would never have known the potential I had.”

She said: “When it came to our first-ever game for Junior Tykes FC, it didn’t go so well and we were brought down to earth with a bump.

“We played against a team called Spire Rangers and we lost quite heavily, something like 21-0!

“I remember our mum and dad being worried that we'd probably never want to go back, but we loved it that much we couldn't wait to play again.

“Funnily enough, there was a girl on the Spire Rangers team called Meaghan Sergeant, who now plays for Bristol City in the WSL.

“We used to play against her regularly, so she’d probably look back at those days with fondness too.”