Kingston University women’s football team have welcomed up to 50 new players into their squad.
Interest in Kingston University’s women’s football team has surged, as they only had around 20 players last year but this season they have remained with 45 women.
Women’s club captain Meghan Harris said: “I believe the Lionesses have given girls the drive to be better at what they love doing, playing football.”
From 2020 to 2024, the number of women and girls playing football has increased by 56% according to The FA.
The Lionesses have played a huge part in that with European Championship wins in 2022 and most notably their recent one in July 2025.
Second-year Kingston University student and footballer, Nia Tcholakova said: “I think the Lionesses success has a really big impact because it gets more girls to play, even from younger ages.”
Not only their success in the sport has increased participation, but their togetherness and determination as a team.
Driven by leadership, notable role models have emerged from the Lionesses such as Leah Williamson and Lucy Bronze.
Tcholakova said that she likes Lucy Bronze because “she gives everything in every single game”.
The Lionesses have also inspired many women to take their football talents to social media.
Taylor Harris is a women’s football content creator with nearly 200k followers on TikTok and student at the University of Nottingham.
She said: “At our football trials, the volume of girls wearing England women’s shirts and kit was overwhelming. We had 150+ girls when I was on committee a couple years ago and now the lionesses have retained the euros we are expecting over 200 this year.”
The Lionesses recent Euro win has also given Harris a bigger platform to showcase her content which involves vlogs, breaking news and opinion pieces.
“In the two weeks following the trophy lift I accumulated over 3 million views. The amount of eyes on the game has certainly increased participation and the media coverage has driven more girls to get onto the pitch and play themselves,” she said.
Amazing progress has been made so far to encourage more women to play football, and Kingston has seen a rise in participants because of it.
However, many students believe that Kingston could contribute some more to women joining the football team.
Third-year student Kingston University student and footballer, Sarah Al Zubaidi said: “I think Freshers Fair is good but after it finishes no one knows… so they need more advertisement throughout the year.”
