Ahead of England’s opening match in the UEFA Women’s U19 Championship finals, Arsenal midfielder Fran Steele admits she is hoping to emulate the heroics of fellow midfielder Jade Moore.
Moore was a key member of the Three Lions set-up that won the U19 Euros in 2009 and she has gone on to cement her place in the senior squad, earning 12 caps to date.
The 23-year-old was invited to St. George’s Park last week to relay her experiences of those two weeks in Belarus to this year’s intake – and Steele said she was inspired by Moore’s story.
England v Sweden
UEFA Women's U19 Championship finals
Group B
6pm BST, Tuesday 15 July 2014
Tønsberg, Norway
She said: “It was great listening to Jade. When someone like that gives up her time to speak to you, you have to take note.
“Jade won the U19 Euros and kicked on from there. She spoke so highly about that tournament and how much it did for her so we can only learn from that.
“I think she hit the nail on the head – to get into the seniors and be successful you have got to go through the ranks, you’ve got to perform at youth level. That’s what we’ve all got to do now. That is our aim.
“It would be brilliant to follow in Jade’s footsteps. It’s my dream. There are other tournaments ahead of us if we do well in these Euros so everyone is hoping to do well and then we’ll see where we go from there.”
England get this year’s Euros under way on Tuesday evening when they take on Sweden in Tonsberg, Norway. They will then face Republic of Ireland on Friday and Spain next Monday.
The Young Lions qualified for the finals by topping their qualification group with three wins from three.
Of Brent Hills’ 18-strong squad, only Kirstie Levell and Jemma Purfield have previous tournament experience, having represented the U17s last year – but 17 of them will be eligible for the U19s again next season.
Steele added: “Everyone is buzzing. We are all fighting for places which is great, but we are a really tight squad.
“People might not look at us as a threat because we are a young squad but we have been preparing for these Euros for ages so we are more than ready. Every player deserves to be in the squad.
“We will prepare for one game at a time because they are going to be three different tests.
“Sweden will probably be quite physical whereas Spain will be good technically and will look to pass the ball around a lot.
“We will just have to take it one game at a time. Our first aim is to get out of the group but of course we’d love to go as far as we can.”
