How Mannion is giving back to her community

Solihull-born Aoife is among the generation of players to have grown up without much representation of women’s football on the television, or a girls football club readily accessible. She therefore knows the impact that established footballers like herself can have across the country.

“To my knowledge, when I was maybe age five to 10, I didn’t know of any girls’ teams - the only way I knew to play football was to play in boys’ teams,” she told club media. 

“As I say to the girls now, it’s really nice to do things that you like with loads of people that might be similar to you. It’s really nice for them that their opportunities have changed and [they’ve] got even more.” 

The 28-year-old has even helped set up a girls team in her local village, thanks to a chance encounter, as she relives the story with us. 

“There was a village fete and I can’t remember if I just happened to be walking my dog through it, but I got chatting to the stand for the village football team - an all boys' team - and they had mentioned they were really keen to start some girls' teams. 

“This is a year and a half ago now, during the time when the Lionesses were in the Euros and went on to win it, so I was able to go into schools and say 'watch the games'. We had 60 girls from a few schools sign up, and now the girls' teams make up something like a third of the whole village football club, which I think is really cool.” 

Since beginning her work with them, Aoife says she feels ‘connected’ to the team and the club, adding: “There’s one team in particular that I coach a little bit with. 

“It’s just really nice, it’s a really good feeling. I don’t feel like I’m kind of dipping in randomly, I feel quite close and quite connected to that particular team and also the whole club in general.”

Since becoming a Red in 2021, Aoife has become a significant champion in the community, relishing the time she spends with Manchester United Foundation.

“I’ve really enjoyed it. We managed to get a load of girls from a particular school down to Carrington and the team, when we were finished for the day, managed to nip over and say hello and get involved for a minute or two. 

“We didn’t need all of our training kit because were right at the end of the season, and we were able to give them [some of] that as well. To have the opportunity to spend a few minutes around them was really nice.

“I think, certainly for the older players on our team, we didn’t grow up with [women's football players as] role models, so we can sometimes forget the impact we can have on young girls and kids that really enjoy football. 

“[That] was something really small at the end of our day, not a massive portion of our day, but it obviously meant so much to the kids. It’s really good to get the feedback that people really enjoy it. It reminds us to do more of it.”