She’s already netted 150 goals in her short career, but Olivia Buckle, 8, has never been happier than when she met her football heroine, Katie Thompson, last week.
Hull City Ladies star striker Katie presented Olivia with a specially signed shirt after the Cottingham youngster was fortunate enough to win a competition giveaway arranged by local health group NLG.
Olivia, who has played for Cottingham Rangers for one year in the local leagues, said: “I was really super excited and happy to meet Katie who is such a good player.
“I love football, just really enjoy it and want to keep on playing all my life to the best of my ability.”
Katie said: “Olivia is actually an unbelievable young footballer – she might be my heroine after scoring 150 goals and even getting ten in one match; we’ll all need to watch out for this one!
“She just needs to stick at it and stay positive even when things might not be going quite so well.”
Olivia’s mum, Jillian, who entered her daughter into the competition, which also included a pair of Nike Tiempo Legend 10 Club FG Junior boots as a prize, said: “Olivia is such a big Katie Thompson fan that we had to keep it quiet that Katie was going to present the shirt as we knew that Olivia would have been reminding us about it constantly.
“I am so pleased and proud of her as she works so, so hard and always has the ball at her feet.”
Mark Hathway, managing director of NLG, which sponsors Hull City Ladies, said: “We are really pleased to be able to support such talented local female sports stars and back the development of the ladies game in the area.
“As a health business, NLG is acutely aware of the need to encourage young people and women to keep fit and healthy, so hopefully initiatives like this can go someway to helping that.”
In addition to Hull City Ladies, NLG is active in supporting good causes and in the charity sector, including the Overseas Plastic Surgery Appeal (OPSA), the international children’s charity, and the Sheffield-based Support Dogs charity.
As one of the UK’s most highly accredited, framework-approved healthcare recruitment agencies and consultancies, NLG offers an extensive range of specialist services to the NHS, private healthcare institutions and healthcare professionals across the country.