Born Kicking: Connie Blacklaw

The latest ‘Born Kicking’ youth Q&A features 11-year-old Connie Blacklaw from Edinburgh, who plays for her Gaelic primary school Taobh na Pàirce and for Musselburgh Windsor’s 2014s age group, while supporting Hibernian Women. She describes waving to her favourite Scotland player Erin Cuthbert as a flag-bearer at a Scotland v Hungary match, names Chloe Kelly as her dream strike partner, and Lucy Bronze as her football hero. Blacklaw, who has been playing since age five, describes herself as ‘encouraging, fast and strong’, reveals lucky shorts as her football superstition, and recalls an own goal as her funniest football moment – a light, personal snapshot of grassroots girls’ football from the magazine’s youngest-reader-facing recurring feature.