The England Deaf Futsal women’s team has made history by becoming European Champions and their Blackburn-born player has been named in the top five best players in Europe.
The England team beat Germany in the semi-finals and then triumphed in the European Futsal final against Spain, which was held in Italy on October 22.
Zara Musker, 24, who plays pivot or winger position, scored a total of ten goals which saw her as the top scorer and was also named one of the top five best players in Europe.
Zara has had hearing loss all her life but in July 2020 her life was turned upside down when she lost all her hearing and had to have a cochlear implant.
Despite her disability, Zara doesn’t let her deafness define her and has continued to play football alongside studying for a Master's degree in Neurosensory Sciences at the University of Manchester.
She is currently on placement in Withington as part of the scientist training programme as a trainee in audiology which will see her become a clinical scientist in audiology.
Zara said: “The cochlear implant changed everything because, obviously, I went from hearing to not hearing. It saved my life.
“So, I decided to go down the path because I want to be a role model for people and prove that you can do and achieve anything even with an implant and still live a normal life. Not a lot of people know a lot about them until you have to have one yourself.
“My hearing loss had never been an issue until I lost it all in the first year of covid. My world ended, to be honest - I would not be here without the implant. So, I’ve chosen to not be defined by my hearing loss because it’s football and sport defines me.”
Zara played for Accrington Stanley, Burnley and then was scouted for Blackburn Rovers Academy from 11 to 16.
She then moved to Everton in the WSL before being offered a scholarship to play in the United States in 2018.
Speaking on her achievements, the Futsal champion said: “I was in the US at the time when I didn’t know if they were going to put money into women’s football or not so I chose to go down the education route.
“I stopped playing football a couple of years which was really difficult because I loved it but there wasn’t a league to play in. I started playing futsal with the England team which was so good because we had funding.”
Zara went to Bulgaria with the England futsal team in 2014, who were at the time funded by the Football Association (FA), and won Bronze and then went to Thailand in 2015 winning fifth place in the world.
Unfortunately, the FA pulled funding from the group in 2022 claiming they made the decision to refocus its funding to “help develop the national 11-a-side format".
To compete in the Euro championships, the team had to fundraise the money themselves. Each player had to raise £850 each and they received £15,000 from Specsavers.
Zara added: “We train once a month, not even that, so we’ve not done much together. It’s a shame because imagine the potential the team has with the correct funding and facilities.
“We have to pay for everything so every time we have a training camp, I live in Manchester, so I have to get a train down to London and pay for transport, hotel, and food.
“The main thing is not necessarily that we’ve won, which is a bonus and gives us a platform, but the main agenda is we can raise awareness in terms of the fact we’ve self-funded this and we’ve managed to win.”
The team are preparing for the world championships in Brazil next year so are hoping to achieve funding.
Zara said: “We just want to raise awareness for deaf sport and show that anyone who’s got disabilities can still play for England or your country.”
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