A TYLDESLEY women's footballer has set her sights on reaching the top of the sport after representing England Under-16s in a tournament recently.

Ella Toone is a Year 10 pupil at Fred Longworth High School and has been playing the sport since the age of eight.

The 15-year-old spent six years at Manchester United and then moved to Blackburn Rovers in a bid to develop her career at reserve and women's level.

Ella has just returned from a 10-day trip to Denmark taking part in the Nordic Cup, representing England for the under 16's womens team.

She made her debut against Finland and went onto play three out of the four games coming up against teams such as Finland, Holland, Denmark and Iceland.

With women's football on the crest of a wave after the national teams heroics in Canada at the World Cup when they brought home bronze medals after beating Germany 1-0 in the third/fourth place play-off.

Proud mum Karen said: "She really enjoyed the Nordic Cup as it was teams from around Scandinavia in two groups.

"They drew one and lost others and it was a great experience for her development.

"She plays on the winger or alternatively in a number 10 role.

"She has been in and out of the Elite Performance Camps where the players are picked from St Georges Park.

"She has been one of the smallest in her age-group but in the past year since she joined Blackburn she has matured into a better player."

The 15-year-old has aspirations of going all the way to play for the full national team.

Karen added: "She wants to be a professional footballer and we have had a couple of phone calls from clubs to see if they would join them.

"But she is only 15 and still at school so we will have to wait and see what happens."

Karen also admits Ella's school have helped her reach the dizzy heights of representing the U16s.

She said: "She had to see the head-teacher to get permission to go away with England.

"The school have been very accommodating letting her have time off school to represent her country."

Ella is a multi-talented sportswoman as she also turns her hand to tennis and excels.

Karen said: "She has just been to Wimbledon to compete in tournament run by Graeme Le Saux.

"She went with the school team and they finished runner-up but the previous year they won the competition.

"She is a very focussed individual and that has helped her to succeed."

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