Three sisters, one dream – to become professional footballers just like their inspiration Maya Le Tissier did.
Triplets Millie, Emilie and Hollie Jeffreys, along with many other girls from Guernsey who play football, have been inspired by Guernsey-born England Lioness and Manchester United captain Le Tissier. The triplets play for Le Tissier’s former club St Martin’s as well as Zico FC and the GFA Mourant Girls’ Academy.
‘She’s amazing. You can see the pathway there that we can get through and you know that it can be done, so it’s not impossible because Maya did it and for us, hopefully, that’s something that we want to follow her in,’ said Hollie.
‘We want to be professional footballers just like Maya is.
‘Seeing the Lionesses win the Euros was a massive inspiration, it gives you even more of inspiration to try and follow in their footsteps and do what they’ve done.’
Before the Lionesses went out to Switzerland for the tournament the girls were invited to a training session at St George’s Park where the England Stars wore the kits of their first ever football club. The girls went as three of the current players from the players’ first clubs to attend the special event.
‘It was absolutely amazing, you got to watch all of them train and then they spent some time with you which was really nice as well,’ said Emilie.
‘Well, you went in and looked around. There were some trophies and stuff to look around and then we went to the football area and then got to watch their training.’
It’s safe to say the girls are busier than most 15-year-olds with all of the football they play locally, but they also regularly travel off island to play, whether it be residential camps or trials and training sessions with academies.
Earlier this year the girls went to trials for Chelsea and have done training with Liverpool and have recently had a few training sessions at Manchester United.
‘It’s been really a incredible experience because you can see how big of a difference it is playing football over here and there, because they’re a lot stronger and bigger than you and obviously that’s what you want to be playing in every week,’ said Emilie.
‘There are not as many girls playing here, but it is a great opportunity for us to go over and play different people and learn from them as well.’
The girls started playing football at the age of five with Vale Rec before transferring to their current club St Martin’s and said football is something they are all equally passionate about.
‘Hollie actually started first and then we came about two weeks later, it all started from there,’ said Emilie.
‘Most of the football over here was boys’ football, but like Emilie said we did boys’ football first and then we started girls’ football after. It’s quite different compared to boys’ football – boys’ football is quicker and the boys obviously are more aggressive and stronger, and it is not like that as much with the girls,’ added Hollie.
Being triplets, the girls are very competitive with each other, but they said that spurs them on to play better.
‘If one of us does something and the other two haven’t, they will always want to try and do it better than them, so we’re always trying to beat each other and do something better than the other two,’ said Millie.
‘We can also sense where each other are on the pitch.’
The girls started their season off with training sessions at United and are keeping an eye out for other opportunities to go and play off-island.
‘This season at the minute we have got just local girls football over here and carrying on with mixed football and see if anything else pops up from there,’ said Millie.
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