Southampton’s Jemma Purfield is hoping to create connections off the pitch as well as she does on it with Women in Football’s Next Goal programme. 

The Cottingham native is taking part in an innovative fully-funded programme that sees women’s football players work with a team of expert facilitators to discover what is possible for them in their post-playing careers. 

Purfield has highlighted working in the media as a potential avenue for the 26-year-old once she has retired from football. 

“I think I wanted to create more connections and network outside of just the immediate football bubble,” Purfield said. 

“I wanted to look at my career after football and start to get an idea of where that might take me and what that might look like.  

“And I think just to meet new people and share ideas is always a nice place to be. 

“I’ve had an interest in the media side of things, so I think that's definitely something that I'll keep pursuing and looking into.  

“But I also want it to broaden my horizons further, whether that might be outside of football or going into the corporate world as well.  

“I think that was mainly why I joined the course to see what else might interest me.” 

Purfield is currently engaged in a ferocious promotion battle with the Saints in the Barclays Women’s Championship. 

And while she is honing her skills on the pitch, she is equally concerned with developing herself off it. 

Through the programme, which is funded by The Adecco Group and LHH, she will be mentored by Cassie Whittell, a Senior Operations Manager at Brighton & Hove Albion. 

She added: “It’s a programme that really introduces you to that next side of your next career, your next step in life. 

“The course has been really helpful in opening my eyes to different avenues that I could go down and also how I can use my skill sets that I have in football, and put that into my next step.  

“I think it's good to meet new people share ideas and get more ideas for what I might want to do in the future. 

“It's really important for women's footballers to have an eye on what's next, just because, it's quite a short-lived career football, in general sports careers are . 

“Also the sustainability of it financially is not the same as the men's game, so I think it's important that we know what we're going to do with our next steps, or at least get an idea and start to network with people who can help us on that journey to find out what's next for us.”