England's Lucja Wyrwantowicz: 'An incredible honour'

England blind women’s player Lucja Wyrwantowicz is one of the Para Lions’ key players as they start 2026 with a focus on the Blind European Championships in October.

Originally hailing from Dunstable in Bedfordshire, Lucja is now at the Royal National College for the Blind in Hereford where she’s studying for a Level 3 BTEC in sports coaching and development as well as intensive football training with the college’s blind football facilities.

Along with her squad mates, Lucja is part of the Para Lions group who are in Tenerife for a mid-season training camp and we caught up with her to find out how it’s all going and a little bit more about her journey...

How's the camp going? What have you been doing so far?

“It's been really good. We've had meetings and training sessions, obviously, and it's been really, really good. We are pushing ourselves and day-by-day we're pushing ourselves more and more. It’s an amazing trip to be a part of.

Is this your first trip to Tenerife?

“Yeah, it’s my first time here, and I think seeing the sun for the first time in three months has definitely been a bonus but it's been lovely. I really love warm countries and it's literally the perfect weather here, because it's warm but it's also a bit chilly so when we're training we're not overheating and when we're outside it’s not freezing.”

How is it being away on the trip with the other squads? There's five teams out there, so a real opportunity to mix and learn from each other?

“I know some of the players from the other squads, so the blind girls and the blind men’s team, we know each other quite well and we're also paired up for some of the tasks in Tenerife. I also know a few of the deaf girls, but actually I spoke to a lot of people on the plane over because we were all mixed up on the flight and I got to chat to quite a lot of people that I've never actually spoken to.

"And I got to do some blind sign language with one of the deaf girls as well, to see if that could be a way to communicate together. I think it's a great opportunity for us to get to know each other and get to know about our own formats.

"We don't tend to be on camps together at the same time, so I think it's good to get to know each other and be in each other's company because we're all here for one reason and it's a great way to celebrate all those people that are chasing the same goals as you.”

You have the Euros coming up later in the year, so everything from here will be focused on preparing for that?

“Yeah, definitely. We came back from the World Championship tournament in India last October when we got to the Final and finished second. It was an absolutely amazing adventure and journey, but now it’s straight into Euros focus so we'll have had a year to prepare for that. It's just getting in the hard work straight away to give us the best chance in the next tournament.”

Going back to the start, how did you get first get involved with blind football and how has the pathway with England been?

“I was actually fully-sighted growing up. I played mainstream football but then I started losing my vision around the age of nine. I tried to keep playing mainstream football, being slightly visually impaired but it was really, really hard. For example, my team couldn't adapt to it and also from a social perspective, I was getting bullied quite a lot and excluded by my teammates. So I stopped playing sports for quite a few years.

“I've now got partial sight, so no central vision and I have shapes and colours in my peripheral, so my right eye is a lot worse than my left. I've got light perception in my right eye, but in my left eye I've got shapes and colours. So I'm classified as a B2 and we've got a whole range of sight in our squad.

“At the age of 15, I was recommended to a charity called VICTA, who support blind and visually-impaired children and have activity sessions where they get a bunch of people in a certain age group together. The one I went to was a sports camp at the Royal National College for the Blind where they did all kinds of different visually-impaired and blind sports that I could try out, and I met my best friend who’s also on the team through that camp as well. It was a great social and skills development environment for me, and that's where I got introduced to blind football and I started playing again there.

“I got scouted for England and it was very much a newly-created squad then, so we had camps every month where we’d get together and work on things and improve. We then had the Euros and the build up to the World Games in Birmingham in 2023 and since then it's just been more people coming in through the pathway. We're developing as a squad, we're developing with the game and we're having more opportunities to play.

“The game itself is still developing for women because we’ve only been going for five years, but it's honestly amazing how far we've already come as a squad.”

How has your time at the Royal National College for the Blind been?

“I've been studying there for three years now, and after doing A-levels, I'm now doing my Level 3 BTEC in sports coaching having also done a health and social care certificate and an A-level in psychology. Alongside that, I've obviously learned living skills, independence, mobility such as cane use, cooking, looking after yourself, assistive and digital technology.

“I also do around seven or eight hours of training a week, both gym and football, because we're in such a lucky position at college where we've got a blind football pitch to play on. Adam Bendall, who's the men's blind football coach, works there and a lot of players have gone through the college or are at the college. It’s such an amazing setup and an amazing opportunity to develop.

England Blind women’s player Lucja Wyrwantowicz has been nominated for the People’s Puskas Award for this brilliant goal against Sweden 👏

Click below to vote for Lucja! 🗳️

— Lionesses (@Lionesses) January 28, 2026

What about the People’s Puskas nomination last year…

It was crazy. I didn't expect that. I found out in the October or November through my team manager and I was kind of like, what?!? I was absolutely shocked that I was nominated for such a thing. I think it went really crazy because a lot of people started reposting it and then kind of when the nomination came through, a lot more people started posting about it and you can see the hearts and the likes keep on increasing. I think it's such an incredible thing for disability sport and it’s a great honour. I want more goals to be recognised from many different disability sports because they're as phenomenal as the mainstream, sighted goals.”

 

You’re part of the first England women’s blind squad, so how important is it to be role models?

“Definitely. I think even through the use of social media, I know me and a few of the other girls have had contact from girls about how they get into blind football. We've even got people into our squad or onto the pathway through posting on social media and obviously that's incredible because it’s such a great platform if you do it correctly.

“It does feel amazing when you can be a role model because I think all of us growing up lacked that. From my own experience, I think I would’ve been in a much better position if I had someone when I was growing up and I was losing my sight who was in a similar position playing in adaptive sport and saying, look, you can still play sport, you can be okay with your sight loss.

“It's such an incredible feeling to be able to be those role models now and seeing the impact we can have. We always get told by our coaches that down the line in 20, 30 or 40 years, we were the start and got the ball rolling. It's only going to get bigger and better now. It’s an incredible feeling and an incredible honour to have."