Published: Wednesday, 3rd September, 2008 12:30
Leanne bids for glory in the UEFA Cup
By Jamie MacDonald
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Active schools co-ordinator Leanne plays for Scottish women's football champions Glasgow City.
Pic by: Jan van der Merwe
UEFA CUP glory is on the mind of Alva Academy’s active schools co-ordinator Leanne Ross as she heads off to Serbia this week.
Leanne – who plays for Scottish women’s football champions Glasgow City – and the rest of her team will be spending the next week in Serbia where they play three matches in the qualifying round of this year’s UEFA Women’s Cup.
The Glasgow team will pit their wits against the Serbian side ZFK Masinac Nis, Narta Chisinau of Moldova and Dutch champions AZ Alkmaar with the top team from their group going through.
Leanne told the Advertiser, “It will be my first time playing in Europe but the team has played in the tournament before.
“I’m really excited about going. Since we won the league it hasn’t taken a long time to come round.”
Playing in a foreign country against some of the best players in the women’s game is nothing new to Leanne who has 26 caps for Scotland.
She won her previous two caps for her country only last week in friendlies against Finland – a three nil defeat and a one each draw.
The central midfielder said, “Playing in Europe will definitely be a step up from the Scottish league. We don’t know what the standard will be of all the teams. A lot of the players in Europe are professional but we have been training hard for it and will go out and try to win.”
Should they top the group, Glasgow City could meet regular English champions Arsenal or FFC Frankfurt, the current holders of the UEFA Women’s Cup in the next round.
In addition to working as active schools co-ordinator, Leanne is also a sessional coach and is training to become a tutor for the Positive Coaching Scotland programme.
Marjorie Macfarlane, Clackmannanshire’s sports development manager, said, “Leanne is a tremendous asset to the Active Schools team, not just with her great skills of organisation to deliver the aims of the Active Schools initiative, but she is also a wonderful role model and elite performer for football and women and girls in sport.”
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