Former Guisborough Town Junior Annabelle aiming for stardom after joining Sunderland

Former Guisborough Town Junior Annabelle aiming for stardom after joining Sunderland

A highly promising and ambitious young former Guisborough Town Junior girl’s footballer has been given a tremendous boost to her career by being signed on by Sunderland PGA (Professional Game Academy).

Guisborough born and bred Annabelle Thomas is rapidly making a name for herself in ever-widening women’s football circles – but the modest young left wing back who possesses blistering speed is keeping her fast-moving feet firmly on the ground.

Admittedly, the 18-year-old is single-mindedly ambitious – but for the time being she is content to continue to work hard and hopefully progress well enough at Sunderland before seeing where the next exciting phase of her football development takes her.

One of Annabelle’s main attributes on the football field is her amazing speed – allied to her incredible fitness and strength.

It was recently shown on her in-play fitness tracker that she clocked a mind-boggling top running speed of 32km per hour – two kilometres more than the fastest footballer clocked at the recent European Ladies Championships, a Portuguese player.

Annabelle and her incredibly supportive family are hoping her experience with Sunderland PGA will in time provide her with the perfect springboard to even more promising opportunities.

Annabelle was actually a relatively late starter in girls’ football, only beginning to play around the age of 11/12, initially for the Guisborough Junior ‘Wildcats’ team.

Before her interest in football really took off, Annabelle’s main sporting interests revolved chiefly around cross country running, athletics and swimming and basically just keeping as fit as possible.

FITNESS FANATIC

Since getting more and more involved in football, Annabelle has become a fitness fanatic, training up to two and sometimes even three times a day!

Despite her somewhat slightly-built 5ft 2-inch frame, she punches well above her weight with her super fitness, strength and incredible speed which makes her an absolute handful to compete against out on the field of play.

Before getting the biggest break in her career so far when she joined the Sunderland Professional Game Academy (PGA), Annabelle played for Middlesbrough Under-23’s for one season and one of the spectacular highlights for her there was when in a North Yorkshire Cup game against York at the Riverside Stadium she sent audible gasps right around the ground at one point.

She unleashed a rocket of a shot from fully 30 yards out, and the ball rattled the crossbar so hard that it rebounded back and beyond from where Annabelle had originally struck the shot!

KEY DEVELOPMENTS

Annabelle highlighted some of the key developments in her incredible journey and progression up the ladies football ladder.

She thoroughly enjoyed and found her recent time at the highly regarded Park View Football Academy in Chester-le-Street extremely beneficial.  In fact, while in her first year of full-time study and education at Park View she played for them in the ECFA competition and they won the national final!

“I also played in many showcase games throughout my time at Park View.  We also won the ECFA North East Women’s Premier, the league we were playing in at the time,” commented Annabelle.

Before joining Middlesbrough U-23s, she played at the Teesside Regional Talent Club (RTC).  She continued:  “I played there for three seasons from Under-14s through to Under-16s and I feel this was a crucial part of my early football development.

Now she’s with Sunderland PGA, which is a full-time programme including an educational aspect. It is giving Annabelle priceless opportunities to play top teams at that level such as Chelsea, Manchester City and United, Arsenal and Aston Villa to name a few. It’s clearly a far cry from her earliest formative years with the Guisborough Town Junior Section, but she has never lost sight of how important that period was to her.

And already Annabelle is demonstrating how she wants to give something back to young girl footballers, helping Guisborough Town husband-and-wife coaching team Sammy and Scott Allison with the organisation and running of a recent Duke of Edinburgh course for their young players.

Several former well-known players in the game have helped Annabelle along her journey and she particularly singled out former Middlesbrough star Mark Proctor, saying how helpful he was with tips and suggestions about Annabelle’s training programmes.

Anabelle’s immediate family members are clearly hugely proud of their talented young star-in-the-making.  Dad Mike and mum Jane commented how incredibly proud the whole family is of her.  “Yes, the whole Thomas clan is extremely proud of her.  It’s been incredible to see how much Annabelle has developed in the last six or seven years since she first took up football with the Guisborough Juniors,” they commented.

‘TRULY AMAZING’

Mike’s brother and Annabelle’s uncle is Andy Thomas, a very keen Guisborough Town fan who was recently appointed Club Steward at the KGV Clubhouse.  He commented:  “It’s been brilliant to see how much Annabelle has progressed in recent years.  She’s been truly amazing.  We’re all so delighted for her. She deserves her success with all the real hard work she has put in.”

Annabelle herself remains modest and grounded about her blossoming career, saying:  “Almost ever since I can remember, I’ve always enjoyed keeping fit with cross country, athletics and swimming.

“Now, since I’ve taken up football more seriously, the level of fitness and strength I’ve built up over the years has been a massive help and has given me a big advantage for me out on the football field,” she added.

So where does Annabelle hope to see her career going ultimately in the future?  “I know it’s a big ambition to have, but I will try my absolute best to get into the Women’s Super League (WSL).”

When interviewing and talking to Annabelle, you can’t help getting the feeling that this determined young player might just realise her footballing ambitions.  And if she does, where next?

She would dearly love to emulate her England idol Lucy Bronze and play for the national team!

Next are two pictures which epitomise how Annabelle’s football career has taken off big style in just the space of the last six or seven years: