Wardle girl joins England U15s football team

Ellie Kelly, 14, has joined the England U15s squad

A teenager from Wardle has been offered a place on the England U15s football team after she was scouted during the last season.

Ellie Kelly, 14, who plays for Manchester United Girls Academy, was offered a place on the England U15s squad in July following a medical and cardiology assessment at St George’s Park. She was scouted whilst playing for United over the last season.

The Wardle Academy pupil even won player of the year in 2016, gaining the opportunity to train one-to-one with Dwight Yorke, and looks up to players such as Ronaldo and Neymar.

Her proud mum, Jade Toft, a Neighbourhood Housing officer at Rochdale Boroughwide Housing, said: “The whole family are mega proud of Ellie; we are behind her 100%. She is over the moon about her success and is so excited to be getting stuck into the training.

“As her mum, I admire her talent, determination and commitment to the game and even with such an intense training programme and weekends being taken up with matches, she never shows lack of enthusiasm.

“Her six-year-old sister Lola loves nothing more than watching her big sister play and is hoping to watch her on the television one day.

“Potentially Ellie can walk into this at the age of 17. She trains four times a week and puts in her all: I feel so positive about her future in doing what she does best.”

Having shown an interest in the sport almost as soon as she could walk, Ellie played for Pennine Juniors before she was successful in trials at Manchester United Girls Academy at the age of seven.

Ellie has aspirations of playing professionally in the future, but has a back-up plan of becoming a sports physiotherapist.

She will be attending an England training camp next week in Leicestershire.