RGU student Eilidh shares with us her journey developing her football career at Aberdeen Women’s Football Club while keeping up with university work. She also tells us more about her hopes and dreams for women’s football after having been named Women’s Players’ Player of the Year for the fourth year in a row!
Can you tell us a bit more about yourself?
My name is Eilidh, I just finished studying Accounting and Finance at RGU and will be graduating this summer. I am from Aberdeen.
I started playing football when I was around eight years-old. My dad and brother are both big football fans so I grew up with football in my life. I started training with the boys from my school and later joined Aberdeen girls’ team as a friend played for them.
How has your experience been playing for Aberdeen?
Aberdeen was the first club that I joined and my only club so far. I have been with them since I was around eight or nine years-old and I have worked my way through the youth teams up to the first team.
I moved up to the first team during the season we got relegated, which was challenging. However, this allowed me to get more game time than I would’ve expected when first moving up as we were playing at a lower level.
It was tough being so young joining the first team with the older players, but it was beneficial for me to learn off these players early on. And I can now use my experience to help the younger ones coming into the first team.
My highlights at the club were making my first team debut aged 16 and achieving back-to-back promotions to get us back to the top league where I have competed in for three seasons now. Other highlights include representing my national team at youth level for the under 17s, under 19s, under 23s.
How do you juggle playing football with studying at RGU?
It is challenging, especially around exam time trying to juggle university and work, but I just need to make sure I stay on top of work throughout the semester and ask my lecturers for help where required. I have been lucky that my lecturers have all been supportive with football, and on the other hand my coaches have been very supportive of my studies.
During my spare time, I need to make sure to focus on my university work to not fall behind on anything. It might mean that need to study on the bus on the way to the away games, which can be challenging. But an away game in Glasgow or Edinburgh can take up most of my day so it is important for me to use any time I have to ensure I’m on top of things.
I have a really supportive family, and my friends at RGU help me a lot. If there is anything I miss due to football, they help me catch up, which makes a huge difference.
It’s also important for me to prioritise things and ensure that I plan things ahead due to my busy schedule
How has it been being a woman in football?
When I was playing school football in primary, I was the only girl in the team. It was good to join Aberdeen’s girls team early on as there wasn’t a huge number of girls teams at this point.
It has been nice to see the growth of the women’s game in recent years, particularly in England and Scotland and the increasing opportunities for women in football. Girls can now dream of becoming full-time professional footballers, which wasn’t a thing when I was growing up.
What are your plans for the future?
It is now possible for me to dream to play football full-time so that is the aim for the next few years! Beyond that, I would love to be able to represent my country at the top level.
With my degree in Accounting and Finance now secured, I also hope this can help me get a job in the future.
How do you see women’s football evolving in Scotland?
There has been growth over the last few years so hopefully it can continue like this. It would be good to see more teams in the Scottish Women’s Premier League 1 become professional to attract high quality players to the league and help it grow further.
There are now five full-time teams in the league when only a few years ago there weren’t any, so this is positive. However, it is important that this doesn’t cause huge differences in the standards of teams competing against each other, as it can be tough for a part-time team to compete with a full-time team.
The Scotland women’s team getting to a major tournament a few years ago was a huge boost for the country as it allows everyone to see the potential the country has and what it can achieve. It is now important that players and team receive the necessary backing and funding to be able to keep pushing players on and continue to improve!
Eilidh Shore
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