The way Annabel Kiki sees it, there’s really no difference between her England team and that of Harry Kane. Or Mary Earps for that matter.

Kiki, only 16, plays for England. Like Kane and Earps, she’ll compete at an officially recognised World Cup. And you can bet your house that Kiki will do her very best to bring international glory back to English shores.

“We have this big thing in this country,” says Sally Remmer, Annabel’s mum. “The men haven’t won the World Cup since 1966. The women couldn’t do it this summer.

“It’s going to take a group of one-legged women to bring it back.”

In England, no amputee women’s football team existed. “When this happened to me, I never thought I’d play football again,” Kiki says.

Kiki is one of the many new faces on England’s first-ever women’s national amputee football team. In fact, other than Shelbee Clark–the only woman in the England Amputee Football Association (EAFA) since joining in 2019 who plied her trade with the well-established men’s team–everyone on the team is technically a new face.

Upon the establishment of the World Amputee Football Federation governing body in 2002, amputee football has evolved around the globe, taking on myriad forms in the process: There’s the all-alluring World Cup which occurs every four years and now includes up to 26 member countries. There’s also the yearly European Champions League, international junior competitions and club clashes galore.

All, of course, if you’re male.

For footballers like Kiki, such high-profile, organised international football opportunities were a non-starter. Previously, women plied a singular trade in men’s amputee teams, either as the sole woman in an all-male team or in individual events. Haiti was the first country to introduce a women’s national team some years ago, followed by numerous countries in Africa and Poland in Europe.

Only in the last two years have other countries, such as England and the USA, begun to follow suit. According to World Amputee Football, there are now approximately 20 countries globally with women’s amputee teams, though the number is growing rapidly.

It took until last November for England to put together their official women’s team, a venture that originated from Kiki attending an amputee women’s camp in Poland the year prior after she stumbled upon a Twitter post from the Polish FA advertising a women’s amputee football camp. Kiki shared her disappointment that such camps didn’t exist in the UK and the subsequent negative impact the dearth wrested on her relationship with football. The Polish FA invited her to camp.

“I’d never been in contact with people like me ever,” Kiki says of her trip to Poland. “That was the first time I’d met with people like me and it was great. We were like a big family and I think they really helped push me to get on with my sport.”

There, Kiki met English veteran Clark, who has yearned for years to create a fully fledged women’s team but often lacked resources and firepower. Upon the pair’s meeting and with November’s Women’s World Cup hosted by Colombia looming on the horizon, it was decided: it was time for a team. Kiki and Clark wouldn’t accept no as an answer.

“They didn’t have much of a choice, you can’t have a World Cup without England,” Sally Remmer jokes

Annabelle Remmer is one of the many new faces on the team

The 16-year-old also models when not playing football

Sacha Bowman, another member of the inaugural women’s team, doesn’t feign surprise at the length of time required to reach this stage. At the EAFA, a readily-accepted and ubiquitously-known maths equation is bandied about: Women’s football is five years behind men’s football.

“And women’s amputee football is five years behind that,” Bowman says.

The succinctly matter-of-fact tone in which Bowman states it almost detracts from its starkness. But it offers something in the way of explanation for why, up until November 2023, no women’s team existed. While women’s football has struggled for funding, visibility and the most general examples of parity, amputee women’s football has largely been starved of it.

The governing body doesn’t hide this fact, though it’s been keen to delineate a firm line between then and now.

Hurdles remain, however. Financial backing from the FA remains limited, and fundraising efforts to finance the journey to Colombia, spearheaded by Kiki and Remmer, are in place to help the team meet their ambitions. The predicted sums are steep. Kits are expensive to source, as will be travel and accommodation. The team are still without a designated head coach or coaching staff, and the team’s individual experience levels are eclectic.

So far, the team have raised half of the estimated £50,000 needed. Even so, Bowman welcomes any chance to play for her country. Born without fully developed bones in her arms, a rare condition known as phocomelia syndrome, Bowman refused to let her circumstances stop her from chasing her dreams of being a sporting hero. Football in particular became a hiatus.

“Football for me, I was just like everyone else,” she says. “I could have the ball at my feet. I could run, I could go. I was quite fast, so my condition didn’t impact me in that way. I didn’t let it stop me.”

Bowman’s conviction led her to harbour dreams of one day pulling on the shirt for England. Yet, while the opportunities were copious as she played mostly with the boys in primary school, upon reaching high school, the dearth of fellow women’s players like herself meant her hope dried up.

“In the beginning, I thought, ‘yes absolutely I want to play for England’,” she says. “But then, that ambition went down after that.”

Bowman continued to play competitively in various 11-a-side teams. But upon being offered a chance with the new England team, Bowman didn’t hesitate in joining, even if the game’s rules (nuances differentiate amputee football such as outfield players being required to be either amputated below the knee or have a limb difference, while goalkeepers must have amputation or limb difference in their arms) dictated she become a goalkeeper.

“As soon as they said, I could represent England and go to a World Cup, I was like I’m doing anything they ask of me. I’ll bring water to the bench, just get me in there. Let me be a part of this.”

The sentiment is shared by Kiki. The thought of scoring the game-winner at the World Cup is tantalising, though it’s a laurel that would look nothing if not congruous with Kiki’s burgeoning era of success. That Kiki would coincidentally set a new England record for being the youngest to do so on such a glimmering stage by some distance is an even smoother fitting detail.

Kiki hopes the new team won’t only provide the country with a trophy but a necessary source of inspiration, an unofficial raison d’etre of the teenager over the last two years.

Despite her circumstances, Kiki’s exuberant embracing of her new life is startling in its aptitude, with the young star not simply re-learning how to play football or ski or swim or mountain bike, but rather readjusting the perspectives of those around her while expanding the parameters of her own life.

When not vying to bring home England’s first taste of World Cup glory in 58 years, Kiki spends her time as a diversity model, pursuing her love of travel blogging and playing the drums for Sam Ryder at Eurovision. Her story has garnered messages of encouragement and applause from people around the globe, including actress Selena Gomez and celebrity chef Gordon Ramsey.

“I wear a skirt to school, I cut the left leg of my trousers off so I can show it off. I think I look really cool with it. I’m proud of it,” Kiki says of her prosthetic leg.