Abbey Harland has recently signed to play for the York City Regional Talent Centre, following in the footsteps of previous Town girl footballers Ella Rowell and Ruby Gibbs.
Abbey started playing as an eight-year-old at Harrogate Town at a boys football camp way back in 2013.She has trained at Harrogate Town ever since, starting as a member of the boys Player Development Centre (PDC) in 2015, and was then one of the first girls to register when Harrogate started a separate PDC for girls.
In the early days at the soccer camp she asked to play football for a new team that was setting up, New Park Bulldogs, she was eight at the time and this was for a boys team.
She then transferred to Scotton Scorchers when she was nine as she was no longer allowed to play with the boys at that age, she played seven and nine a side for Scotton Scorchers in the York area league until June 2018.
Abbey then decided to make the leap to competitive 11-a-side football with Kirk Deighton in Division One of the West Riding League - her only season there saw them finish third in the league and reach the cup final.
Abbey contributed over 30 goals in her debut season and was subsequently given a trial by York City Regional Talent club, on 17 May 2019 she was officially offered a contract to play for York City RTC where she will now be testing herself against some of the best teams in the country including Manchester United and Liverpool.
Abbey has been an ever present at the girls PDC for the last four years, has worked hard to improve her game, scores goals for fun and has a great attitude at training.
Everyone at Harrogate Town is confident that she can successfully follow in the footsteps of both Rachel Daly and Leah Galton, Harrogate footballers who have both represented their country at the highest level.
Good luck from everyone at Harrogate Town.
Ged Maloney
Ladies Director of Football