Fulham FC Foundation walking football participant Laura Strong has been selected to represent England against Wales in the first ever Women’s walking football game. The game will be hosted in Wales at Merthyr Tydfil on Saturday 2nd November.
Laura attends the Fulham FC Foundation’s walking football and sporting memories session every Friday at Elmbridge Leisure Centre. She was one of the first women to join FFCF’s walking football programme, which is delivered through the Cohen66 fund, and she told us how much it has grown since its inception: “The programme has evolved massively since I started playing with the Fulham Foundation back in April last year. Every week new players join up and attend weekly sessions based at various locations, both male and female.
“Specifically for women who may have stopped playing team sports to bring up a family or focus on a career, walking football fills that void and resurrects the benefits of team/club spirits and builds up self-esteem. It reaches out to all levels of ability, and who knew walking football would be so good for cardiovascular fitness!”
FFC Foundation walking football coach, Mark Blythe, had this to say about Laura’s international call up: “When Laura joined, she was relatively new to the game but took to it with a determination to learn and improve every week. In the early days of the sport she had one-to-one coaching and she joined in with the boys to help her development & now plays at least three times a week. It’s been brilliant to see her dramatic improvement, and her enthusiasm for the game has encouraged many others to join in. I’m delighted that she has received the well-deserved call up for the England team to play Wales. Very proud of you Laura, you deserve it.”
The Fulham walking football programme was initially established through Cohen66 campaign funding and is now a fully sustainable programme that has been running for three years in multiple locations. If you would like to give walking football a try, get in touch with the team at Fulham FC Foundation via: foundationinfo@fulhamfc.com.