Maisie O'Shea on her rise from grassroots football to the World Deaf Futsal Championships

My name is Maisie O’Shea and I play for the England Deaf Women Futsal team.

I first started playing football when I was four years old before eventually joining my first club Norseman – which was a boys’ team – when I was seven.

I started futsal when I was 15 or 16 because a lot of people recommended it based on my style of play.

I enjoy playing futsal because it is a very high-intensity and technical game where there are hopefully lots of goals.

There wasn’t a particular moment where I fell in love with football. It was more that the more I played it with my family, the more I grew to love it over time.

The main match which stands out for me when I think back is probably that first game for Norseman because it was a boys’ club, it was a different environment, a new game, and it was just fun.

It was a bit different to when I played my first futsal game. That came for London Helvecia Futsal Club when we played Bloomsbury and it was live on BT Sport! So it was a big game and we won it so that was another great day for me.

When I think back to my first England camp as a teenager, I was significantly smaller than everyone else so it was a tough battle physically but it is good to see how far I have come in the last five years or so.

Playing for England offers you a real sense of commitment and gives you something to really work towards.

Representing England gives me so many opportunities and opens so many doors; getting to travel to international competitions and other countries.

Ready for the World Deaf Futsal Championships 👊🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

Join the England Deaf women's team for a training session ahead of the tournament – which starts on Friday! pic.twitter.com/incpb5ulfj

— Lionesses (@Lionesses) November 8, 2023

I’m really looking forward to playing in my first World Championships.

Some of the squad come into the tournament off the back of winning the EUROs in 2022 so it would be great if we could carry that momentum on to the world stage and hopefully challenge favourites Brazil for the title.

This tournament will be a great experience and I hope we get the chance to play hosts Brazil because the atmosphere would be brilliant.

I’m still young so having the opportunity to play in my first World Championship is a brilliant experience.

I really believe in every single player in this squad and the coaches. You can see the confidence the coaches have in us.

I’m hoping we can do our best and hopefully we can win a medal and reach the final.