Rinsola Babajide

"I wanted to prove them wrong, especially when they said I would never make it, that it's not a girl's sport, there were obviously down days and stuff, like there in that moment how it made me feel, but I just kept playing football because I was in love with the game, which I still am. And it makes me happy."

"I’d like to see more support for the women’s game. I’d like to cut out racism and the discriminatory slurs both in the men and women’s game."

"I fell in love with football when I was a little girl. No matter what, I don’t play football for the money. I play football because I love it."

"There’s more female coaches in the game now too which is healthy."

"I’ve experienced sexist slurs on social media as well as racism and things like that...you become stronger from those kinds of things. They’ve made me tougher and stronger as a person."

"It’s a sad reality but as a black female I’ve felt like I have to work harder than the next person."

"I need to stay focused and tough - negativity will always be there but If I’m working hard, getting to the places I want to play, it means that I’m controlling all I can."

"I don’t play football solely for myself. I do it for the younger generation too. I do it for young black females that aspire to be professional footballers in the future."

"If you have the backing of the men’s side and the club as a whole, it means that us on the pitch can fully focus on that. You want to cancel out the background noise and be able to focus on the football alone."