WHEN football-mad Low Moor girl Eleanor Ciesielski began playing for Bradford Park Avenue under-eight boys' team, she was happy just playing football.

She never dreamed that one day she would be playing and training alongside England World Cup stars – but that is exactly what has happened.

An FA Women's Premier League side had been tracking her progress in recent months but the ambitious teenager applied for trials with Women's Super League side Manchester City and, at the close of a League Cup-winning season as a central defender with Brighouse Town, she was one of 35 girls from various Centres of Excellence who received an invitation to face the Blues.

Her consistently good performances in those trials, including a full 90 minutes against their first team, prompted an offer of a place with the club's reserve or development squad for the 2015-16 campaign – one of only three out of the 35 to receive the offer.

Eleanor was elated when given the news. "There were tears of joy," said proud dad John.

After that game against the first team, she was in no doubt as to the demands of the professional women's game, and Eleanor's first response was: "I'm going to really work hard on the physical side of the game.

"I am really going make the most of this opportunity, I'm not going to waste it."

Apart from joining a gym already, there is likely to be a change of direction in her education too with her A-Levels likely to reflect her new ambitions in the world of sport with a possible physiotherapy degree at university.

The Ciesielskis are Bradford City family season-ticket holders but, living close to Horsfall Stadium, it was Park Avenue who first provided that opportunity for Eleanor to play, and she was an outstanding success throughout her four years there as one of only two girls in the boys' team, regularly pipping her team-mates for the club's individual honours.

By the time she moved into girls football with Gomersal and Whitcliffe Mount's school team, she was already one of their most experienced players.

Places at the Bradford FA development centre and then the North Yorkshire FA Centre of Excellence followed.

With regard to completing her education, Eleanor is about to start her second year at Brighouse Sixth Form College, but, like any talented 17-year-old boy in her position, she now has a very real prospect of playing the game she loves as a professional.