Lego and tattoos – Wales’ role model goalkeeper Safia Middleton-Patel

Becoming a footballer – and certainly a goalkeeper – was not always the plan for the player who hails from Wrexham and is known around the Wales camp as simply Saf.

After a very early dabble with street dancing or any other sport on offer in the local village, Middleton-Patel was eventually “thrown” into football.

“I was the only girl on the team unfortunately, it wasn’t very big back then,” she told BBC Sport Wales back in 2023.

“I went to a summer camp every year with the lads. None of them wanted to go in goal so just throw the young girl in goal.

“But to be fair I enjoyed it, I loved putting the boys down and saving them, making them angry.”

It was the pathway to regional talent centres and then joining Liverpool’s academy before signing for Manchester United as a 15-year-old in 2020.

By 2022 she had worked her way into the United matchday squad for the first time, with a professional contract following in January 2023 at a club where she says she learned much from watching former team-mate Earps up close.