Aston Villa Women: Laura Blindkilde Brown can be the heart of midfield for years to come
After breaking through the Aston Villa ranks in a whirlwind 2021/22 season, 19-year-old Laura Blindkilde Brown has continued to impress this term for Carla Ward’s side.
The teenager has started all of Villa’s WSL games this season and has not looked out of place when facing far more experienced opposition in the middle of the park.
Having been spotted at school by a coach who worked for the club, Blindkilde Brown trialled with Villa, aged nine, and after getting in, her journey with the club began.
Although interjected by a brief stint with city rivals Birmingham City, where she made her senior debut at just 16 years old, she returned to Villa’s academy a year later and continued her rapid rise through the ranks.
Blindkilde Brown is starting to reap the rewards of all this hard work and is going from strength to strength under Ward this season. For a player with such little experience, the 19-year-old has so many strings to her bow.
Her ability to remain calm on the ball when faced with an intense press is one of her great assets and was evident in Villa’s encounter against Arsenal in December. When Blindkilde Brown gets on the ball, she simply makes things happen.
Speaking exclusively to Villa News, The Athletic’s Dan Bardell waxed lyrical about the teenager, who has already represented the Lionesses at several youth age groups.
He said: “She got in the team towards the back end of last season, and I was at the game at Villa Park against Birmingham City, and she was the brightest player on the pitch by miles.
“Her first touch, the way she receives the ball on the half turn and the way she carries the ball, she’s going to be a serious player moving forward and someone who I think eventually will get England honours.
“She’s a local player who has come into that Villa midfield at such a young age, but she’s such a clever player with her weight of pass, she’s busy and always on the move.
“She has got a chance of becoming the complete midfield player for Villa and someone who I think can go on and play for England.”
It is not just Villa who have benefited from Blindkilde Brown’s development over the past 18 months. The midfielder has been ever-present at several England youth levels and recently starred in the England Under-19s Euros campaign last year.
After impressing during the Euros and training with the England Under-23s, a call-up to the senior squad under Sarina Wiegman could well be waiting just around the corner.
Either way, Villa have a gem on their hands in Blindkilde Brown, and ten years after her initial trial with the club, she has become a mainstay in Ward’s midfield.
In other Aston Villa news, Rachel Daly should be played as centre-forward for the Lionesses in 2023 after her stunning campaign in the West Midlands.