England striker Ellen White was once banned from playing football at the age of nine, with a front-page headline of the story recently resurfacing on social media.
White wrote her name into England's history books on Sunday after helping the Lionesses beat Germany 2-1 in the final of Euro 2022 at Wembley.
The 33-year-old led the line for Sarina Wiegman's side throughout the tournament, scoring twice in her six matches.
White is England's all-time leading scorer, having managed 52 goals in her 113 appearances for the national side.
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But things could have turned out very differently for the Manchester City forward, who was once banned from playing football as a youngster.
Back in 1998, White was prevented from playing in a local league for boys in Buckinghamshire.
At the time, White was a member of Arsenal's girls academy and had scored 100 goals the previous season after playing for her father's football academy.
But she was prevented from playing alongside boys, prompting the The Bucks Herald newspaper to publish a front-page article on the story on September 23, 1998.
The article, which features an image of White looking sad in her Arsenal kit, leads with the headline: "Soccer girl banned by league for boys."
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"Ellen is only nine and can't fathom out why she can't play football," read the sub-heading.
The Bucks Herald also reported in 2019 that White, who comes from Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, had to play for the boys' team when she attended The Grange School as they did not have a girls' football team.
"At the time Ellen was at the school we did not have girls football on the curriculum, but she was always playing football with the boys and loved all her sports," one of her former teachers said.
White would later leave Arsenal's academy in 2005 to join London rivals Chelsea.
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She moves on to Leeds Carnegie in 2008 before returning to Arsenal two years later.
After a three-year spell with the Gunners, White joined Notts County before moving on to Birmingham City in 2017, eventually joining her current club Manchester City in 2019.
Featured Image Credit: Alamy & The Bucks Herald & Twitter/EllsBells89Topics: Women's Football, England, Football
