Aggie Beever-Jones: My grassroots story

I was always drawn to football.

My mum took me to ballet lessons but it didn't work for me, I was always a manic kid chasing something or kicking a ball with my grandad in the garden.

And my brother used to be a referee down at our local club and dad and grandad were Chelsea season-ticket holders. I wouldn't necessarily say I was a diehard fan but I was always involved in the game.

It's certainly always been Chelsea for me and I've been lucky enough to come through the academy since I was eight. My heroes were the likes of Fran Kirby, Karen Carney and Millie Bright, so it's come full circle now that I'm with her in the England squad.

It all started at a place called Joseph Hood. We played in what was called a Sunday Little League and I played with the boys. I think at the start I was in goal but once I came outfield that's when it started and there was a Chelsea coach who went to speak to my dad and said, 'Your daughter's quite good, you should take her down to a trial'.

I initially trialled and didn't get in that first year. I kept playing with the boys and I also played with AFC Wimbledon at the time. Then I trialled again, got in, and it went from there.

Once I got out of goal, I always wanted to be a striker. For me it's always been about being creative, dribbling and driving forward with the ball. I was always chasing after it. My mum was just happy I was putting that energy into football rather than crashing around the house.

I went through the ranks at Chelsea but my loan spells elsewhere have been massive in my development. It started with Bristol City when I turned 18. Moving away from home and all the off-the-pitch stuff was quite new to me. I'm grateful for that time because I was able to mature quite nicely off the pitch.

The manager there, Lauren Smith, really trusted me to kind of get the game time and make mistakes and improve where I needed to. I went back to Chelsea that summer, chatted with Emma Hayes, and decided to go out again, this time to Everton. That gave me a taste of the BWSL and the kind of level I need to find. I got up to pace with things a lot more and was able to properly showcase what I can do.

It might seem like things have run really smoothly but it's never a straight line. There are things people won't see from the outside. I've been lucky enough to really hit form with Chelsea at the end of this season and coming into the international scene now I just want to carry that on.

The England pathway has really helped me, too, in terms of my development and now settling into the senior squad. I've been lucky enough to be involved since around the U14s and to see where the game's gone in that time, with the standards that are now being set at the top of the game, is such a brilliant thing.

The pathway is really clear through the age groups now, with myself, Khiara Keating, Grace Clinton coming through.

The girls above us are the generation who won the EUROs in 2022, which was incredible. The hard work continues to keep improving myself and hopefully the team from here.