Attracting attention has always been normal for Niamh McKevitt in her football career. At 16, she is the captain of the South Yorkshire Girls under 17s squad, has represented the Republic of Ireland Women at junior international level, and started playing for Huddersfield Town in the FA Women’s Premier League while still at school. But it’s not her accomplishments in the women’s game that make her stand out. It’s this: since she was 12, Niamh has been the only girl in England playing football in the boys’ leagues, and she’s now written about her experiences in a book called Playing With the Boys.
“If you haven’t played the team before, what happens is they’ll be doing the warm-up and a ripple goes through the team,” she explains when I ask how boys react to seeing a girl on the opposition. “One will notice there’s a girl, then another, then another, then another, and then suddenly they’ll all stop their warm-up and are staring over in shock, like, ‘Oh my gosh!’”
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