Kerstin Ballard is the Women Who, Worcestershire sponsored player at Worcester City Women’s Football Club. She’s been kicking a football for longer than she remembers (according to her family!) and was the only girl in her primary school to play in those early years.

In this episode Kerstin shares her journey through the early days of playing football with boys to joining a local girls team, progressing through teams further afield before ultimately joining WCWFC. She shares her experiences of playing in a very male dominated environment, the importance of supportive adults and male allies, the lack of female role models and how much is changing in recent years with more and more girls and women getting into football.

We discuss the WCWFC football camps and the number of girls now exceeding the number of boys joining, the impact of the England Women winning the Euros in 2022 and little girls pretending to be those players when they score. We also talk about the value of focussing on psychological strength and mindset to build a team, and the numbers of women in back room roles.

As well as playing football, Kerstin is studying for a masters in physiotherapy and has two sports therapy roles at local rugby clubs (although has no plans to switch to actually playing rugby!).

Kerstin reminds us that “if you surround yourself with the best people, its going to bring out the best in you” when talking about the Women Who Inspire her, including WCWFC’s CEO Nicole Allison.

Find out more about WCWFC on their website here https://www.wcwfc.co.uk/

Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/ben-johnson/some-kind-of-feelin License code: NP3DJP6UFYUOY9UK