Coleen Rooney, Wayne Rooney's wife, has returned to her roots in Liverpool to find some of the UK’s most dedicated and involved football mums. Visiting Mossley Hill Athletic FC Under 10’s boys team in Merseyside, Liverpool, Coleen met some of the hardworking mums who go above and beyond sacrificing their own free time for the sake of their football-mad children.
Self-study activity:
Coleen Rooney has a very broad Liverpudlian accent which, to be honest, is quite difficult to understand.
Watch the video through to get the feel of what the accent in this part of Britain is like.
Then watch the video as often as neccessary and complete the blanks in the transcript.
I’ve teamed up with McDonald’s to search the UK for the most dedicated and involved football mums. Wayne always spoke a lot about his mum and what she’d done to sacrifice her life for his football. Having kids now, my Kai is (1) ..., plays for a number of local teams. We are pretty much busy, I’d say, four nights a week and then games on a (2) ... and training on a (3) ... , so it is literally, near enough, every day. In Liverpool, that’s your typical family. Everyone is a football fan.
Julie is a mum of three, and with two football-mad sons, their entire life revolves around the (4) ... ... .
I do a lot of jobs, raging from collecting subs, sorting out training facilities, ordering the kits, arranging friendlies, tournaments, the end of year activities, presentations. Just helping with the training, my boot is full of balls. I would say football probably takes up over (5) ... of my life at the moment. I’m pretty sure that there’s lots of mums out there like me, that as well as doing what I do, will coach a team.
There’s a lot more mums getting heavily involved in football clubs today, and it’s about time they get recognised for it.
With all of her kids’ activities, mum-of-four Joanne has little time for herself, but she wouldn’t have it any other way.
We all love football in this house. Charlie’s whole life is just playing football, so obviously that’s taken over our lives. I believe the grassroots wouldn’t be the same without the (6) ... ... . They do a lot behind the scenes that you just don’t see. There’s people who do much more than me and deserve to be recognised.
I’ve come to meet some mums with truly inspirational football stories.
So what (7) ... do you make for your children to come here?
Birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas.
I do help a lot for his team and my other son’s team as well. You’ve sort of got not much of a social life. I’m (8) ... this year and I’m going to a football tournament on my (9) ... .
From coaching, managing teams, or volunteering at the club, they give up hours of their time.
We’ve got Paul and Chris who manage, and I’m like the third ear. I feel like I’m sort of part of the coaching team.
And how do you think the role of being a football mum is much more than just bringing the kids to training and some football games?
Definitely you see a lot more mums getting involved in the actual game, with the mums acting as a (10) ... .
What’s the relationship like between all the mums at the club?
I’ve got quite a big family, it’s hard sometimes juggling them. I’ve got four children. Last week, I was struggling, I couldn’t get Charlie to football, but you just put a (11) ... out and within 5 minutes you’ve got 4 or 5 offers to take him for me.
We’re looking for football mums who are leading by example, taking an active role in keeping the grassroots game going.
Without Julie, the club would really struggle to survive. She takes a lot of the burden off the coaches in terms of what we do. She (12) ... everything for us and makes sure everything runs like clockwork.
So, whose mum deserves to be Football Mum Of The Year?
Nominate a deserving mum in the 2017 McDonald’s Football Mum Of The Year. Nominate now at mcdonalds.co.uk/awards
Key:
1 seven
2 Saturday
3 Sunday
4 beautiful game
5 75%
6 football mums
7 sacrifices
8 forty
9 40th
10 coach
11 message
12 arranges
