Spain awaits for Belles

SPAIN awaits for Heston Rovers Belles U16s who are jetting off to partake in an overseas football tournament.

The squad of 18 girls and five coaches are playing in the Barcelona Girls Cup 2025, with fixtures starting today, Thursday June 5, and finishing on Tuesday.

The Belles players though mostly from Dumfries also comprise girls from Mid Annandale, Nithsdale, Annan and Rigg.

Everyone connected with the team has been working extremely hard for the past six months to raise the necessary funds to enable the girls to be a Scottish representative team at the event. This has included raffles, race nights, tabletop sales, music nights, sponsored activities, rag bag collections, tea/coffee sales and some incredibly generous donations from local businesses and grants from funders including the Holywood Trust.

The Barcelona Girls Cup welcomes 98 different girls teams from 11 different countries across all the age groups.

The Under 16 Heston Belles team will play a total of five games and they have been drawn against girls teams from Austria, Spain and Switzerland providing a unique opportunity to play against female players from many other countries and make new friends from across the world.

Lee Seton, head coach with Heston Rovers Belles, said: “Excitement levels are through the roof now for everyone involved.

“We are really proud to be able to offer opportunities such as this for the girls, providing experiences and learning way beyond just football.

“The generosity of local businesses and the wider community in supporting the girls to get to Spain has been absolutely incredible and we are extremely thankful.”