WHEN Niamh Gamble was growing up playing the beautiful game, the number of professional female footballers for young girls to look up to was scarce.

As the women and girls development officer at Colchester United, Miss Gamble has seen the evolution of the women’s game accelerate, and it arguably reached its pinnacle on Sunday evening in front of a watching television audience of 17 million.

England women’s lifting of the European Championship has come following decades of marginalisation for women’s football; the game was hardly given a second thought by Britain’s biggest football teams until the early 2010s, and schools were once seen as trailblazing simply for even fielding a girls’ side.

Professional football clubs like Colchester United have had to fight to receive the requisite funding to put together a women’s development programme – and although the U’s had a female side as far back as the 1990s, it folded in 2013.

But the club has not been waiting for the success of England women before laying out plans to develop the women’s game to a respectable level in the city.

Miss Gamble, who took up her role as the women and girls development officer in May, explained the recent development of the women’s academy in recent years has put the club in a good position to take advantage of England’s success whilst it is still in the national consciousness.

She said: “When I first started at Colchester United, our girls pathway was really small.

“We had the talent centre for four to 11-year-olds and a girls development centre of 100 girls, but we’re really invested into the women and girls pathway so we can give opportunities to all abilities.

“We can also run an emerging talent centre, which is like an academy, so we can create a pool of future players.”

The opportunities Miss Gamble is helping to create now were not available when she was an aspiring footballer.

The 22-year-old watched her first professional women’s game at the 2012 Olympics where Britain’s women went out at the quarter-final stages – but her interest in football had been piqued years before.

“I’ve played football since I was eight,” she said.

“I was the girl playing football with the boys on the football field; I’ve been a coach since I was 14 and was a volunteer coach with the Essex FA.

“Football has been there since I was a young age, and I’m very happy in my role creating opportunities for girls who didn’t have them when they were my age.”

Not only are football clubs taking the game more seriously – there are more visible role models for young female footballers too.

The profile of the women’s game is gaining momentum in such a way that more young girls than ever before will be able to name a professional female footballer; Jill Scott, Alessia Russo, Leah Williamson, and Georgia Stanway are all names which will be etched into the memories of young girls who watched England’s women lift the country’s first major tournament since 1966.

“Like other girls my age, your idols growing up were all male players – that’s all you ever saw, but you didn’t think anything of it.

“It wasn’t until after the London Olympics when the Women’s Super League was professionalised that we started going to as many women’s football games as possible.

“I’m slightly jealous of the girls now who will have so many wonderful players to look up to as their real role models.

“The first female footballers I really remember looking up to were Faye White and Alex Scott.”

Miss Gamble starts picking out names as her teenage heroes start flooding back to her

“Kelly Smith – she was probably the first female footballer who became a household name.

“Karen Carney – that generation of footballers were the first I had really seen in the media.”

England’s success on Sunday may have given young girls renewed impetus to get involved, but for Miss Gamble, one senses that drive to see the women’s game thrive never left her.

It is hoped that, by 2023, Colchester United will be able to field a competitive women’s team once again, with the U’s starting to solidify an infrastructure which is ready to fulfil the aspirations of young girls who, years ago, may never even have seen a female footballer.

“It’s not just about where the funding comes from; it’s also about the appetite for the women’s game.

“We want to create even more opportunities for as many girls as possible – we’re on the way to getting there.

“There’s more room for growth and that’s what the Euros is going to help us with – it’s going to make people want to give it a go, because young girls and boys will grow up thinking this is the norm.”

Miss Gamble, as with thousands of others, will hope this is the ultimate kickstart for the women’s game.

As Gabby Logan said on Sunday evening: “They think it’s all over… it’s only just begun.”