In a year of glory with England and Arsenal, Alessia Russo is already looking to the future and the next generation.
“I love winning right now and winning trophies, but ultimately the legacy that I would like to leave is the game in a better place,” the forward told Sky News.
“To encourage as many young girls to go and follow their dreams, not only in football but just in life in general.
“Whatever you want to do and which pathway you would like to go down, I would like to help in any way I can, using the platform that I’ve got, which I feel very fortunate to have.”
Russo has linked up with Sky and Goal 4 Girls to campaign to increase participation in football and empower inactive girls – with the scale of the challenge highlighted in polling and surveys commissioned by Sky from Public First.
It found that boys aged 11 to 18 typically spend 1.4 hours per week more than girls per week playing sport.
Boys’ teams are prioritised with bookings for pitches and facilities, according to 29% of girls.
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And 33% of girls aged 11 to 18 reported experiencing sexist comments while playing sport, jumping to 42% among 15-18 year olds.
“It’s tough – you go through lots of different highs and lows in football, but stuff like that shouldn’t be the case,” Russo said.
“It’s a shame it’s a barrier. There’s lots of things that can steer you away from sport and our job as athletes is to make sure that we keep these players on track.
“I did start through boys’ football but I know that some girls wouldn’t like to do that and we can’t miss out on the next superstar because they can’t find a team or they don’t have access to different things, so I think it’s really important.
“Hopefully we can create enough change that this isn’t a problem going forward.”
Few players will make it to the professional ranks and emulate Russo in winning the European Championship with England and the Champions League with Arsenal.
But Russo said: “It’s not just about the sport, it’s about what being in a team brings you.
“And I’ve learned so much about myself and from being a part of a team. Learning how to be the best version of myself to support a team is really important.”
The corporate leadership at Sky, the owner of Sky News, is pushing for a minimum of two hours of PE weekly for children across Britain with guidance on uniforms to help on body image, culture and comfort issues.
For Sky chief executive officer Dana Strong, it is about ensuring “we don’t leave girls behind” in sport.
“There’s so many factors that go into equal access and we’re really not there yet,” she said.
“We have to fix both the accessibility and we also have to fix how girls feel about it.
“So things like – are the uniforms something that they feel comfortable in? Are they comfortable being in front of their friends and their peers in that uniform? So all of these are very fixable factors. They just need that little bit of attention and the will to make a change.”
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There are aspirations for a National Girls and Women in Sport Day while Sky is asking for the government to provide tax relief on the production of women’s sport to increase the number of events that can be broadcast – providing greater visibility.
“We really think that for all providers a tax benefit on the broadcasting production cost of women’s sport would help put more money back into the production ecosystem for women’s sport and you would be able to get more and more games on air and the quality of games you’re showing on air would be increased,” Ms Strong said.
“What we’re finding in the study that was commissioned is actually seeing a role model is incredibly important to getting girls participating.
“So we know the role that a broadcaster has in really getting girls participating and feeling good about being in the sport. And so we’re going to keep driving this.”
