A former pupil of the Scottish Football Association’s School of Football has signed for Celtic FC Women.
16-year-old striker London Pollard took part in the CashBack-funded programme whilst attending St Machar Academy in Aberdeen. Jo Murphy, Girls and Women’s Club Development Officer with the Scottish FA, commented:
“London had a great attitude when involved in the programme and would always be in attendance, on time and showed a great work ethic to improve.”
After showing off her skills at Cove Rangers and excelling at Forfar Farmington, London has been snapped up by the Glasgow club, who are “delighted” to have the teenager on board.
Assistant Manager at Celtic FC Women, David Haley, said:
“London was a player we were aware of and interested in for some time. She scored goals in the SWPL and was a constant threat with her pace and power so naturally she was a player that we would be interested in. As well as having the ability to show her pace we knew when signing London that she would be scoring a different type of goal than she did at Forfar, so there were other parts to her game that we identified that we thought would work here at Celtic.
So far London is performing well and has participated in every game since she signed, developing well throughout her time here. Training and playing with top international players will help London and if she continues to grow and enhance her game then we feel we will have a top player at the club.”
London is keen to push herself at her new club, and says she was drawn to Celtic by the competitiveness of the team and the toughness of the training sessions. She said:
“I think playing with these girls who have played at such high levels will be really good for my development and hopefully I can get better and better. It’s a really high tempo, and much faster than what I’m used to, so it’ll probably push me to get even better.”
The School of Football, funded by CashBack for Communities, is a social and educational programme designed to support young people aged 12-14 who may be at risk of exclusion. The project aims to increase girls’ participation in football, and focuses on developing girls’ self-confidence and social skills as well as their sports prowess.
