‘Really heartwarming’: how Euro 2022 started a girls’ football revolution

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It was at a village fete this summer that Manchester United’s Aoife Mannion saw a stall run by the local Davenham Juniors Football Club. After going over to introduce herself, Mannion – also an England international – discovered that the club were looking to start a new girls’ team, after their last one folded in 2018.

Mannion wanted to help, so she gave talks in two local schools encouraging girls to sign up to the club and, also, to turn on their televisions and watch the Lionesses play at Euro 2022. What happened next, Mannion explains over the phone, was “absolutely not what we expected”. Instead of launching only one team, Davenham Juniors are poised to start three girls’ sides in September.

“I just can’t see that that would have been the case if the Euros hadn’t been in England,” the 26-year-old defender says. “In terms of like a catalyst, and really bringing it to the forefront of people’s minds, I think the Euros has done that perfectly, especially because we won.”

But Davenham Juniors aren’t the only women or girls’ grassroots team seeing a boost in numbers after this year’s record-breaking Euro 2022. Across the UK, grassroots clubs are reporting a boom following the Lionesses’ historic victory.

In nearby Manchester, Ella Toone’s former club Astley & Tyldesley have experienced what Lorraine Warwick-Ellis, their head of women and girls development, can only describe as “the Tooney influence”, adding: “We’ve definitely had an increase in interest from girls. I’d say from ages 13, 14, 15 and below, it’s been a