One to Watch: Charlie Estcourt

Reading and Wales midfielder, Charlie Estcourt may have only just celebrated her 17th birthday but has already lead her country out in the Euro Qualifiers during the 2013/14 campaign.

It may have only been with the Under-17s that she managed a start for but the Reading recruit now represents the Under-19s as part of a rapid ascension up the ranks in a bid to don the jersey for the senior side.

Having recently completed a move from Chelsea – saying a fond farewell after four years with the Blues – to her current club, Estcourt goes in search of first-team football despite such tender years and may yet return to the top tier of the Women’s Super League with the Royals targeting promotion this term.

The Berkshire-born girl’s hometown club sit second in the table, only two points adrift of Doncaster Rovers Belles and hitting the heights of the second tier.

Although she’s had to wait for opportunities with the Royals playing well, you can see the variation, along with accuracy in her passing range, go hand-in-hand with her willingness to win the ball. Many an assist the talented teen has bagged through her technical ability in beating a marker by utilising her pace and position to twist and turn her way through the central park.

In the final third, Estcourt is no stranger to an attempt from distance, netting a few sublime strikes in her career to date.

But if the pressure of first joining your country’s camp at 13-years-old wasn’t responsibility enough, I bet you weren’t aware the midfielder studies on the side.

Juggling the Chelsea Development Squad with education – she has A-levels in PE, Biology, and Psychology – can’t have been any easy task, but having been nominated for a Sporting Wales Rising Star honour, she is no stranger to expectation.