Women's England football team, The Lionesses, has provided hope, inspiration and aspiration for a younger generation.
The team are set to make millions in sponsorship deals as they made history on the football field last week when they became the champions of Europe after beating Germany 2-1 in the Euro's final. They have set an astounding precedent for female footballers of the future.
Young girls are now looking up to stars such as Ellen White, Fran Kirby and Ella Toone. One aspiring female athlete is 11-year-old Elsie Scales, from Whiston.
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The Whiston Willis school student currently plays for Merseyside's Anfield Town team and was previously accepted into the Pro Football Academy as well as starring on her school's team. The beautiful game has had the youngster's heart since she was just four and she has brought home many trophies of her own.
She hopes to one day join either the Liverpool FC squad or go on to play for the England team. She said: "Seeing what the England team have done makes me hope even more that maybe one day it will come true."
Her team's coach, Paul Davies, said he has "every hope" of seeing her playing professionally one day. He told The ECHO: "Elsie's development has grown each week and her football brain has developed too. She's become strong and confident in every challenge she's gone for.
"I have every faith in her going all the way to become a Lioness and I am very proud to have been part of her journey."
Paul explained that Elsie was the only girl on the team for a while but recently, due to the success of the Lionesses, he is seeing more and more females becoming involved in football. He said: "Elsie was the only girl for two years but more recently more and more girls have started joining and are enjoying playing.
"It's great to see so many girls now being able to show their talents and do what they love to do. You can see by the increase in woman's ticket sales the respect for the women's game is on the way up and it's about time too."
Elsie's mum, Amy, said that she is "proud" of her daughter and is glad that she is "resilient" to any negativity. She said: "I'm so proud of her. She is definitely at her happiest with a ball at her feet and I absolutely love watching her.
"I'm just glad she is able to do what she loves to do. Her primary school was brilliant and gave her loads of opportunities to play, and then she joined Anfield Town and continued to develop there.
"She has had the odd comment about being a girl playing football but she's resilient, she doesn't let it bother her. I sometimes get a bit upset or annoyed and then she will say 'why do you care I don't, just ignore them'.
"She literally doesn't care what people's opinions are because she loves the game so much." She added: "If Elsie wants to chase her dreams of playing football forever, then ill keep on supporting her as long as her school work is done."
However, there are worries for what the future will hold for the youngster as, while her current school is supportive, she is soon heading off to high school. The Lionesses put an open letter to parliament out earlier this week claiming that currently only 63% of girls are allowed to engage in football in PE lessons.
They said: "Women's football has come a long way. But there is still a long way to go." The team added: "We want every young girl in the nation to be able to play football at school."
Elsie's mum said: "She is hoping when she goes to high school there will be more opportunities for her. Elsie has never been in a girl's team before, but now because of her age it is something she wants to get into. However the girl's teams in our area are limited."
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