Nailah is 16 and has congenital glaucoma and is blind. She has played in our Blind and Visually Impaired Football programme since October 2024.
We’re celebrating Nailah’s story as a part of our ‘My game, my rules, my wins’ campaign alongside the 2025 UEFA Women’s Euro tournament – rewriting what it means to be a winner and show that more girls playing football means more winning, for everyone.
For Nailah, winning means being able to play sport again, because blind football is accessible and allows her to participate equally despite her sight loss. Read Nailah’s story in her own words:
“Sport is a big thing in my family. Mainly football and cricket, but especially Arsenal. I’ve had low vision for most of my life, and in the last year it’s gotten worse.
You don’t really find accessible sports. I used to play sport at school, but they were all inaccessible. If something is inaccessible it means I can’t participate. It means I’m not able to see things that anyone else can, or that they’re more developed at the activity because they have sight.
In school, everyone wanted me to get into sports because I was a sporty person. But I got a bit argumentative. My health was rubbish and it was hard because I couldn’t find an accessible sport, so I dropped out of sport for two years.
Winning is playing sport again. I’d stopped playing other sports because they’re not accessible. I like blind football because I can participate.
I had never come across blind football before. I was going to start playing goalball and then came across the Royal Society for Blind Children (RSBC) and Bloomsbury sessions. I started going there, then got introduced to Bloomsbury’s Blind Football sessions last October.
Blind football makes me forget I’m blind. If you’re playing a sport where you’re not the odd one out, you’re not going to struggle as much. You feel included.
In November, I went to a Para-Talent day for blind football at St George’s Park. We couldn’t play a match because there was only four of us, but we trained with the blindfolds and sound balls, and played on England’s pitch.
There’s not a lot of women’s blind football teams. Even England only established a women’s team like two years ago. I don’t really mind when I just play with boys. but I’d prefer if there were girls.
I’ve improved a lot from when I first started, and my dedication to sport is now a lot stronger. I’ve like developed my mindset of football and I’m dedicated to put everything into football right now.
Coach Owen gives lots of tips on continuing to play. I want to go to the Royal National College for the Blind in Hereford. They’re great for Blind Football and there’s an England pathway from there.
People don’t expect to see a teenage girl who’s vocal about her visual impairment. No one’s going to read an article on what a visual impairment is like. That’s why I like to put my words into art, and make disabilities and visual impairment central in my art.
Blindness doesn’t mean you’re in the dark.”
