Izzy and Heather on pathway to play futsal for England Lionesses after Under-19 call-ups

Izzy and Heather, who study Uniformed Protective Services (UPS) at College and are also part of our Football Development Centre, are among 40 teenagers from across the country on a two-year performance programme designed to provide players for the Lionesses’ senior team.

Futsal is a five-a-side version of football, played on an indoor court with smaller goals.

Games last 30 minutes with the clock stopped every time the ball goes out of play across two quarter-of-an-hour halves.

On the sport’s biggest contrast with football, Izzy said: “Futsal is more intense and you get less time on the ball.”

Heather, meanwhile, added: “I love both. I play futsal at a higher level, because there aren’t as many players, but futsal also helps improve your football with things like your control.”

With the senior team only formed in 2024 and the Under-19s yet to play an official fixture – aside from North Programme v South Programme matches that the "North always win" according to a beaming Izzy - women’s futsal is still in its infancy on these shores.

But the national team’s senior coach also oversees the Under-19s programme and Izzy, who plays as a winger just as she does in football, is excited by the prospect of potentially representing her country on the international stage.

She said: “I didn’t really have ambitions to play for England before, because I didn’t know about futsal but, now I’m on the programme, it’s something I want to achieve – 100 per cent, even though it would feel crazy if I’m being honest and not quite real.”

That opportunity has become a genuine possibility for Izzy despite only playing futsal for the first time a couple of years ago.  

Back then, Izzy was asked if she could get a team together for a club called Samba Allstars in Leeds and she did so by enlisting other female footballers she played with and knew.

The side subsequently entered and reached the semi-finals of the National Cup despite having never played futsal as individuals or together as a team. 

That achievement did not go unnoticed with Izzy adding: “After how well we did at the National Cup, my coach was asked to put forward players for the trials. There were around 60 girls there and, after two sessions, I was one of about 20 who were selected for the North programme. 

“This is my first year on it and we sign up for two years. After that, you sign up for another year with the Under-19s or go on to the women’s squad.”

With Samba not affiliated to a league and some players having to give up futsal after securing contracts at professional football clubs, the team do not play regular fixtures but did recently suffer a narrow 2-1 defeat to a touring team from the USA, who were the best in their state.

Most of Izzy’s futsal education, therefore, is garnered during the six one-day training camps she attends each year, as part of the England Women’s Under-19 Performance Pathway Programme.

The camps include a mixture of three two-hour, on-pitch training sessions and two classroom lessons, focussing on areas such as tactics, set-piece routines and game analysis. 

All players, meanwhile, are given Individual Development Plans and asked for feedback after every training camp as well as suggestions on what they’d like to focus on at the next get together, while constantly reflecting on their strengths and weaknesses.

Support from strength and conditioning, nutrition, physiotherapy and wellbeing experts is also provided with camps being held at venues boasting some of the best facilities in the country.

“I thought Lilleshall (National Sports Centre) was the best place,” Izzy enthused. “The facilities were unreal because it was the England team’s old training centre.

“The drive up to the centre was so long and you could see all the pitches and the old hall. They also have lion statues in front of the building!” 

Izzy’s College studies and sporting achievements have secured her a football scholarship at American International College in Springfield - a city in the state of Massachusetts, where she will further her education, while playing for the Yellow Jackets team in the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association).

“I’m going there in August,” an excited Izzy, who turns 18 next month, revealed. “It’s located near New York and Boston and they have a good futsal team as well, which I’m hoping to get involved in. 

“The football opportunities for women over there are still way better than here, as is the weather! I’m still considering what course I’d like to do and I’d potentially like to do something linked to criminology, which I’ve really enjoyed as part of the UPS course.”

Izzy opted to study UPS after visiting College for an Open Event and believes the course’s sport unit has also helped make her a better athlete on the futsal court and football pitch.

“I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do when I left school,” she declared. “I didn’t really have much knowledge about A Levels, BTEC courses or anything like that, but I spoke to a lot of tutors and I thought UPS sounded good because I could mix sport with subjects like criminology.

“I really like the detective side of the course and I’m enjoying the Global Affairs unit, which we are doing now, a lot. We research the different media and I’ve been looking at 9/11 in New York, so it’s very interesting learning about it all and how it happened.

“For the sport unit, we also had to put together our own six-week gym programme, so I just applied that to my football and futsal. We had to plan a programme and then carry it out.”

Izzy, who lives in Leeds, added that our Football Development Centre, where players attend training sessions delivered by York City coaches and play fixtures on a Wednesday afternoon, was a big factor behind her choice of college as she pondered her post-16 options.

She has moved to Harrogate Town now but was playing for the York City Ladies Development Team at the time and said: “The Football Development Centre was the main reason I came to York College. All my team-mates at York City were going there and some were older girls who’d already finished College and they told me how good it was and that I’d really enjoy it. 

“If I’d stayed at my sixth form, I wouldn’t have been able to do any football and our Development Centre coach Bobby (Paterson) always pushes me in training. He demands the best from you and, if you do something wrong in games, he’ll tell you, and I find that verbal input, when you’re playing, helpful. 

“He always wants the best for you as players, which is great for everybody in the team. I’ve met a lot of girls I never would have done if I hadn’t been part of the Development Team and that’s made the whole College experience a lot easier for me, because you have a lot of things in common and we have a fun time in training.”

That togetherness and strive for excellence has seen the team lose just one league match this season – when they were understrength player wise against Bede Sixth Form College.

Heather, who lives in Garforth, also admitted the opportunity to receive a top-class education, while enhancing her football skills was pivotal in her choice of York College as a post-16 destination. 

“I’d say the Development Centre was a big reason for drawing me to College,” she said. “I’d heard lots about it.

“I also thought it could be a stepping stone to get into the York City set-up and it has worked out that way. You see girls from the Development Centre team all the time when you’re walking around College, which is really nice.”

Heather, 18, joined York City from Doncaster Rovers Belles at the end of last year and has recently been promoted to the first-team squad, admitting that her “next target in football” is getting on the pitch for the senior side.

She shares the same futsal ambitions as Izzy, meanwhile, confessing: “I’d like to play for my country if possible. 

“It’s a sport I love to play and want to get to the best level I can in. Obviously, if you represent your country, you can’t get any better than that!”

Despite being a holding midfielder in football, Heather plays as a pivot in fustal – the most advanced position in a 1-2-1 diamond formation - and is somebody that winger Izzy, who “likes to take on people and beat them”, looks to play “one-twos with”. 

Heather has been playing futsal longer than Izzy, having joined York-based club Bootham, who play in Tier 2 of the National League, five years ago.

That means she combines futsal fixtures on a Saturday, which can be as far afield as Dorset, Southampton, Bristol and Peterborough, with York City matches every Sunday and Wednesday afternoon College contests. 

She was initially invited for trials with the England Women’s Performance Pathway Under-19s Programme at the age of 15 after her talent was spotted playing for Bootham, but she was too young at the time and had to wait another year.

Heather will also need to wait an additional 12 months before she looks to join Izzy on a football scholarship across the Atlantic, having switched from studying A Levels at the end of her first year to the UPS course.

On that decision, she explained: “I switched to UPS, because I’d heard good stuff about the course and it was always something I’d found intriguing. It’s been really interesting and I particularly liked the Teamwork and Leadership unit we did.

“That was fun and, obviously, teamwork is something I’ve been used to for years with football and futsal. Like Izzy, I also want to go to America on a scholarship and find a team that does futsal. 

“I never want to stop playing, because I really enjoy it, but I’m not fully set on what I want to do as a career. The police force does intrigue me, though, and the UPS course can help me with that, too.”

To learn more about York College's Sport Development Centres, please click here

For more information on our Uniformed Protective Services course, visit here

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