Women & Girls

We offer a number of Girls Only sessions, aimed at Primary Schools and Grassroots Clubs looking to grow their female football provision. The programme offers a non-competitive introduction to football for girls across West Yorkshire. The sessions are run in primary schools and at partner grassroots clubs to provide a positive first experience in football through a safe, fun environment. Leeds United Foundation coaches deliver a one hour session each week where the girls learn new football based skills such as coordination, agility, and teamwork. The sessions are the base of our female football pathway, with opportunities to progress further for any girls who would like extra training and to take the next step in their football journey through out Girls Development Centres.

Impact / Outcome:

The programme enables girls to discover a talent, they possibly didn’t know they had as well as being active and having fun playing sport. It also helps grow grassroots football, our aim is to help grow the grassroots game by getting more girls involved in football partnering with local clubs with the support of our coaching to grow their teams. For many girls this is the start of their football playing journey. The aim of the programme is to develop fundamental skills, make friends and offer a safe and inclusive environment for girls to play football. The programme also supports girls to progress into a competitive environment to further develop their skills. Players can also access our female pathway with opportunity to progress upwards towards the Girls Development Centres.

How To book: If your school or grassroots club would like to discuss the above provision please contact the below email.

Contact Details: Email: [email protected]

Telephone: 0113 367 6598

Girls Development Centres

Our Girls Development Centres are open to players aged 6-15 years,and sit at the base of the Girls Pathway and are the entry point for progression along our pathway into our Shadow Squad, Emerging Talent Centre and Girls Academy. The sessions take place once per week and run over a 13-week blocks, focused on specific topics to enhance individual player development, this is a training programme and compliments grassroots football by offering more training hours in a Leeds United training environment.

In 2023/24, 55% of players who attended our exclusive trials progressing through the girl’s pathway into the shadows squad and ETC provisions!

What’s Included?

⭐️ Each centre has a selected trainer of the week who will enter a draw for 2 tickets at Elland Road and posted weekly on our dedicated twitter @leedsunitedrtc.

😊 Individual player development

✅ Part of the Leeds United Female Pathway

🔝 Access to our Shadow Squad through an internal Talent ID process.

⚽️ Games opportunity involving all DC’s at the end of the block (FREE).

Girls only development centres run from the following locations:

Monday:

Garforth Academy 5.30-6.30pm

Tuesday:

Snaith School 5.00-6.00pm

Benton Park 5.00-6.00pm

Wednesday:

Calderdale College 6.00-7.00pm

Grammar School at Leeds 6.00-7.00pm

Goalkeeping school of excellence (runs from our GSAL site) 7.15-8.15pm

Thursday:

NEW – Prince Henry’s Grammar School 5.00-6.00pm

Friday:

King James 6.00-7.00pm

St Wilfrid’s 7.00-8.00pm

On registration, you will receive a FREE welcome pack! On completion of the early bird block booking, you will also receive access to our internal game’s night - our Internal games night runs as an additional playing opportunity for participants who have enrolled onto our block booking option. The games see our development centres come together to one central venue to compete in a series of games and challenges. The Internal games night is Free of Charge and does not affect the series of sessions that take place during the block booking. As our girl's development centres run as an additional training opportunity, the internal games night offers a competitive element to training, where the girls can showcase their skills. There will also be weekly opportunities to be nominated as out ‘Trainer of the week’. Each week one player, per age group, per centre is selected as trainer of the week. The player is presented with a Leeds United Foundation medal, and Trainer of the week certificate. An image (subject to photo consent) is taken and shared on our dedicated twitter page @Leedsunitedrtc. At the end of each block players who have been nominated for an award are input into a random selection process, the winner is given 2x leeds united matchday tickets.

Booking options as follows:

Individual (weekly bookings)

13 weeks - Block 1

26 weeks – Block 1 & 2

38 weeks – Block 1, 2 & 3 (Annual booking secures a FREE adidas girls development centre T-shirt)

The first 100x participants to register for a block booking, will receive a FREE Leeds United Foundation – Women & Girls Pathway water bottle.

To book: visit Leeds United FC: Tickets, Hospitality & Membership or Email: [email protected]

Our Shadow Squad is an invitation only programme, accessed through referral from our Girls Development Centres. The programme is for players who show potential of accessing the Girls Academy. As this is solely a training programme, girls can continue to play for their grassroots clubs and play competitive football in grassroots settings. The Shadow Squad focuses on the individual player, working to improve their technical ability to push them into the Academy. There is a strong emphasis on positional roles and responsibilities, with training focusing on the tactical elements of the game. Training at the Shadow Squad follows a specific blueprint which has been developed for this programme alone.

The training programme includes pitch-based strength and conditioning and a physiotherapist for prehab and rehab purposes.

The Shadow Squad is a weekly training session that runs on Friday evenings 5pm-9pm. Currently the programme hosts 10 age groups - U7s to U16s.

Impact / Outcome

The Shadow Squad has been extremely successful thus far in providing the Academy with girls of high quality across both age groups. 50% of girls accepted into the Academy came from the Shadow Squad in the 2023/24 trials.

How To book: Girls are referred and offered a trial through our Development Centres. For more information on these programmes and how to book please see the website - https://tickets.leedsunited.com/en-gb/categories/women-girls

Contact Details: Email: [email protected]

Telephone: 0113 367 6598

Our Girls Academy (Formerly RTC) is the pinnacle of girl’s football at the Leeds United Foundation. We have 40 elite players in the Academy across two age groups- U14s and U16s. Our aim is to be one of the country’s strongest elite systems for talented female players, producing players for the Leeds United Womens first team, and those with clear elite potential progressing to the the FA women's open age pathway and for England.

Our girls are provided with 3 training sessions per week, with excellent training facilities, including the use of Leeds Beckett University’s brand-new sports facility, Strength and Conditioning, Nutrition and Psychological support in addition to technical and analytical training sessions to maximise their performance.

The girls play in the Junior Premier League in fixtures against boys who are on the fringes of, or are in, academies and girls within West Yorkshire, East Yorkshire and the North East. Whilst

Impact / Outcome

Our Girls Academy produces top quality players that are not only technically talented but also well-rounded individuals when they progress from the Academy. We have seen many success stories with players representing England and teams across the Women’s Championship and Women’s National League. Our girls also have the option to stay within the pathway through our Post 16 Academy College Programme where the opportunity to combine studies and football is available, continuing the infrastructure and support of the Academy beyond the U16 age group.

How To book: Girls are referred and offered a trial through our Development Centres and Shadow Squad. For more information on these programmes please visit https://tickets.leedsunited.com/en-gb/categories/women-girls

Contact Details: Email: [email protected]

Telephone: 0113 367 6598

We offer a full-time Education Programme in partnership with Leeds City College for female players who aspire to play at a high level, whilst also committing to an academic programme of study. Players can study A Level or BTEC courses when committing to our Education Programme. The programme is based at Leeds City College for your education studies and the football provision is based at West Riding County FA for training and match days.

The course includes:

• Training programme 3 x per week.

• College Fixture programme

• LUFC Foundation coaching (UEFA B/A).

• Full Leeds United training and playing kit provided.

• Collected to and from college and taken to training.

Impact / Outcome

The aim of the female academy programme is to help provide a clear pathway for players who progress from Academies programmes or females who are looking to combine their studies with full time football provision. It enables the women and girl's pathway to be extended beyond our Girls Academy (RTC) to combine both programmes in creating a holistic dual career programme which supports female football development. Creating a professional infrastructure which aids player progression and enables them to study their preferred education choice either A Level provision or BTEC.

How To book: Sign up via this link: https://forms.office.com/e/LT3iZ9iid3

Contact details Email: [email protected]

Telephone: 0113 367 6598

Our Emerging Talent Centre operates three squads at U10s, U11s and U12s and is an FA programme that provides greater accessibility to the player pathway and more inclusivity for female players to enhance player development. The programme includes one session per week which includes technical training to each age group, for a minimum of 30 weeks. Included is an age appropriate Strength & Conditioning and goalkeeping provisions aligned to the wider coaching framework. The emerging Talent Centre will include training games across the programme and include a variety of playing formats to aid player development. The natural progression for this programme is into our Girls Academy U14s age group, or U13s shadow squad.

Impact / Outcome

The Emerging Talent Centre has been extremely successful this season in providing the Academy with girls of high quality to our U14s age group.

How To book: Girls are referred and offered a trial through our Development Centres. For more information on these programmes and how to book please see the website - https://tickets.leedsunited.com/en-gb/categories/women-girls

Contact Details: Email: [email protected]

Telephone: 0113 367 6598