From Sim Balk Lane to the Camp Nou – Anisa is Barca bound!

Having gained three Distinction* grades last summer following the completion of her Level 3 course, Anisa is now studying Sport Management at Northumbria University.

It is a course that Anisa hopes will propel her into a football-related career and is also the only undergraduate degree that the illustrious five-times Champions League winners are associated with due to Northumbria’s partnership with the ISDE Law Business School in Barcelona. 

As part of that collaboration, students on the course have the option of spending 10 months in the Catalan city, enjoying an induction day at the hallowed and soon-to-be redeveloped 105,000-capacity arena before gaining first-hand experience of how Sport Management is practiced at one of the biggest football clubs on the planet.

On that prospect, Anisa said: “I’m definitely looking at doing a sandwich year in Barcelona. I’ve heard it’s a very good programme over there and that they work very closely with the football club, which would be so cool.”

Just as cool – at least to our ears – is that Anisa credits York College for putting her on this exhilarating pathway.

Having originally enrolled at College as an A Level student, she switched to the vocational course after a year to focus more on her interest in sport.

Her love of football, meanwhile, was cemented by her experiences playing for College’s women’s team who won the English Colleges’ FA National Cup and were named Association of Colleges’ Team of the Year during her three years on Campus.

Anisa’s passion to pursue a job in the game was also ignited when, on the recommendation of College, she was one of only 12 students nationwide to be accepted onto the FA Rising Leaders programme - an initiative designed to develop greater equality of opportunities and ensure that more diverse female volunteers aspire to work within the football industry. 

On how College’s vocational provision inspired Anisa to follow a career pathway in sport, Anisa said: “I started at College doing Economics, Psychology and PE A Levels and, although I found Economics interesting, PE was the only one I really enjoyed, so I thought why don’t I just do something similar to that on its own.

“I knew the Sport & Exercise course could get me the equivalent UCAS points and get me to the same place I wanted to be. I also found that there are so many aspects you learn about a subject when it’s the only course you do.

“There were modules about psychology in it, as well as physiology and nutrition and I ended up with three Distinction stars. I don’t think I’d have done that well in my A Levels results, because I don’t like the pressure of exams and everything coming down to that final month at the end.

“With a vocational course, you find out through the year how you are doing and, although there are exams at the end as well, I prefer having to only focus on and remember what I’ve learned in one subject and the college has played a massive part in getting me where I am today. I’m quite an independent worker and College gave me a bit of freedom with that, while I knew staff were always there if I did need extra help.”

Anisa went on to admit that being part of our Football Development Centre and the highly successful women’s team also meant that she had “just the best time” at College.

She has gone on to play for her university and, although she is currently sidelined with ankle ligament damage, has quickly made friends from the team that she will share a house with next year, highlighting how sport can help forge friendships when you’re living away from home for the first time.

On how her passion for playing grew at College and how the high quality of coaching and standard of football influenced her decision to study here, Anisa explained: “I didn’t know there was a football team at College, but one of my friends who I played with for Wigginton Grasshoppers started talking about it and I looked into it. Before that, I was just going to stay at my secondary school and do A Levels so I knew a bit about the Football Development Centre before I came here, but there were still so many moments I enjoyed that I didn’t expect to experience coming to College and playing football and my College years were honestly just the best time. 

“We worked together so well as a team and we were lucky enough to go to Valencia for two weeks and play a tournament, which was a brilliant experience. That was also just before the National Cup final and, although it didn’t start off well when we were 3-0 down, we knew we could come back and ended up winning it.

“We had some great motivational talks from (Sports Development Centre Coordinator) Stu (Horsfield) throughout the year and that season set a level for all of us, because we went on to also win the league and a couple of sports awards. Football provides a nice break from the educational side of things because, if you’re stressed about your course, you can just go to football and forget about everything.

“A lot of the players I played with at College were Academy standard, too, so that helped to push me because, if you’re playing with better players, it makes you better.”

The opportunity that arose at College to join the FA Rising Leaders initiative, meanwhile, alerted Anisa to the abundance of different jobs now available in football.

“I made so many connections on the Rising Leaders course – both friendly ones and also from a career perspective,” she enthused. “That’s where I first learned about all the different roles in football and I was literally gobsmacked because there were so many. 

“I was put in touch with people and given a mentor related to what I was interested in. I had lots of calls with my mentor and, at that time, I had an interest in Player Care because I like Sports Psychology. 

“The staff on the course were very helpful and are still in touch all the time to see how things are going. I still don’t know definitely what I want to do and, during my uni course, I’ve really enjoyed the Sports Marketing modules and business side of football, which is what the degree is all about, but I’m still in contact now with people from that Player Care field and am still definitely interested in that. 

“I know that I want to work in girls’ football in a managerial role, but not necessarily as a football team manager and having found out how many different jobs there are in football over the past year, I couldn’t single it down to one, two or even three areas that I’d like to get into at the moment.”

Refereeing is one of the routes that Anisa is now thinking of pursuing and, having progressed from the FA Rising Leaders programme on to the FA Leadership Academy, she is encouraging others to consider picking up the whistle.

“The FA Leadership Academy is a 12-month programme and I’m currently working on my Project Plan with the North Riding County FA, which is seeing me co-deliver Refereeing and Playmaker Grassroots Volunteer courses for girls aged 14 to 18,” Anisa pointed out. 

“I think both qualifications are great for people who don’t feel they have a place to play in the game but still want to be involved and might not know there are opportunities where they can be. I’m also considering becoming a referee myself.”

The FA Rising Leaders programme saw Anisa and her fellow course participants invited to last season’s Women’s FA Cup final in which Manchester United – the team she supports – trounced Tottenham 4-0 at Wembley.

It also gave her an assurance that football has become a more inclusive environment for people of all racial backgrounds.

Anisa points out that she has never experienced prejudice regarding her ethnicity in football despite, from the eight-team league she played in growing up in York, being “one of probably only four people of colour”.  

Irrefutable statistics have shown, too, that a person’s race or ethnicity has proven a barrier to career progression in the football industry but, thankfully, Anisa believes that is now being addressed and is changing.

“I didn’t really have much trouble growing up playing football but, on the course, I learned that some girls from other parts of the country didn’t have the same experiences,” Anisa explained. “I heard about some of the things they went through, which was insightful and opened my eyes a little bit. 

“We also had a lot of guest speakers and some of their stories were insane but, just by the manner in how they presented themselves and what they are doing now, definitely showed me how much things have changed recently. The barriers haven’t completely gone for everyone, but they are coming down.”

To learn more about our Level 3 Sport & Exercise course, please click here

Full details on our Sports Development Centre can be found here

You can also learn more about our full sports provision and meet tutors at our next Open Event on Monday, February 10th. Register your place here