From classmates to teammates

Kaiya Jota and Eleanor Klinger don't just know each other from the England WU20s squad - they are classmates too.

The England women’s under-20s duo – part of the squad for the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup – attend Stanford University together, having been born and raised in the USA but eligible to represent England through their families.

Jota is a broadcasting and communications major while Klinger studies political science – ‘we’ve got a smarty over here’, says Jota – with the Young Lionesses due to graduate in 2028.

And they often cross paths in the hallways and on the football field, representing their school.

“Every day!” they said in unison. “We're in the same graduating class.”

“It’s the best time of year,” added Jota. “We don’t have any schoolwork or homework or anything.

“I’m a broadcasting and communications major, so I would love to do broadcasting for ESPN or the draft and anything like that – any sports. I would love to stay in that world of journalism or broadcasting.”

And it was goalkeeper Jota – who received her first call-up to the pathway with the under-19s in 2025 – that persuaded forward Klinger to link up with the Young Lionesses.

“I joined either one or two years before you – a couple of years ago,” said Jota to Klinger.

“My club coach had reached out to England, saying that I was super interested.

“He had been sending over my film without even telling me because he’s one of the best coaches I've ever had, just advocating for me the whole time.

“It was last winter that I got called up to England. I decided to go and see what it was like, and it was at St. George's Park and I absolutely loved it, I’ve been really grateful just to keep getting called up since.

“I’ve been sort of convincing her [Eleanor] to come to camp for a very long time. I’ve been egging it a bit, saying: ‘come on, you’d love it. It’s so much fun. The girls are great!’

And the pair are surrounded by talent both on camp with England and on campus at Stanford.

“One thing for us, at Stanford especially, we're really lucky to be around so many other people who are also competing in athletics at the highest level,” explained Klinger.

“I’ll be in class with people who competed at the Tokyo Olympics, maybe in figure skating or artistic swimming.

“It's really exciting to be a part of a culture that, oddly, it's normal sometimes for a professor to be getting an email from one of us, saying: ‘we're missing two weeks or five weeks’.”

As for interests outside of football, 20-year-old Jota – who grew up in Pasadena, California – has an interest in fashion and is signed to a modelling agency in LA.

“The modelling thing is never something that I thought I was going to ever go into,” recalled Jota. “It was very much a spur of the moment situation.

“I was in New York for a club showcase and I was walking down the street with my parents and this guy ran up to me with his dog, and he said: ‘have you ever modelled before? This is my card’. He said, ‘please come to my studio tomorrow. We'd love to take digitals of you’.

“We go to the place and it’s very real – it’s decked out with Paris Fashion Week and Kate Moss was signed to them. I was like: ‘this is terrifying’.

"I was 16 at the time but I ended up signing with them and it’s been really fun. It’s just something that I like to do outside of football.”

And the duo have fully embraced what the sport means to the fans on their trips across the pond.

“One of my favourite moments was playing at Shrewsbury Town’s stadium against the Netherlands,” remembered Klinger, who made her debut for the WU23s in March 2026.

“It was a bit of a scrappy game but I just remember all the supporters who came out from around the area and they had England flags in the stadium. You could just really feel the football culture in England in that moment.”

Now, the World Cup in Poland awaits – a tournament Jota and Klinger admitted they have been waiting all year for – with England’s American-born duo ready to make their mark.