The West Ham United women’s team turned a trophy presentation at The Foundry into a glimpse of the club’s future when Katie Zelem and Laia Codina surprised players from the Foundation’s Female Player Pathway. The visit celebrated a 2025/26 season in which the U11s-U16s secured six Junior Premier League titles, two national successes and two cup wins.
The silverware was already doing plenty of talking. Ten trophies is the sort of haul that makes a display table look less like furniture and more like a load-bearing wall. The arrival of Lioness Zelem and World Cup winner Codina, however, gave the occasion something more valuable than another photograph: a direct connection between the girls coming through and the professionals they hope to become.
How the West Ham United women’s team celebrated the pathway
Katie Zelem and Laia Codina visited The Foundry to congratulate the Female Player Pathway teams, join a training session and answer questions. The occasion recognised the players’ successful campaign while giving them practical insight into professional football, confidence, ambition and the importance of continuing to enjoy the game.
The young players had gathered to receive their trophies when Zelem and Codina arrived. Both first-team players took part in the session before speaking about their careers, the standards required in professional football and the experiences that shaped them.
Zelem was immediately struck by both the standard of play and the opportunity now available to girls within the game.
“I love coming to events like this, it was so nice to see the smiles on the girls’ faces,” said Zelem. “The success they’ve had is amazing and the trophies they’ve won speak for themselves. The quality I saw from the players was really high!
“When I was younger, I was the only girl playing in an all-boys league. Now, looking at all these girls, it makes me so happy to see how far the game has come. It’s so nice that they have this access and opportunity, not just for football but in life. They’ve got amazing coaches here and it’s a great environment.”
Her observation supplied the afternoon’s most telling contrast. Zelem grew up having to find her place in an environment built largely for boys. At The Foundry, she encountered groups of girls training together within a defined development structure, surrounded by coaches and team-mates with similar ambitions.
Progress in women’s football can be measured in attendances, contracts and trophies. It can also be seen more simply: a young player no longer having to wonder whether there is a place for her.
Laia Codina finds a reminder of football’s simplest pleasure
The pathway players were not the only ones taking something from the session. Codina said the enthusiasm within the group offered a useful reminder that football begins as play long before it becomes employment.
“You can see how much they love to play football,” she said. “Sometimes as a professional, you just see it as your job, but it’s nice to go back and remember when you were playing with your friends.
“I could see their ambition. It was really nice to see in their eyes how much they love to be here and be with each other.
“They’re really proud of everything that they won last season, and they deserve to be because they’ve worked so hard. But I also told them it’s about who you win with, and the most important thing is to have fun.”
That final point can become strangely easy to misplace once results, selections and contracts enter the conversation. Codina’s advice did not diminish the value of winning. It placed the trophies within a wider experience built on friendship, shared effort and the pleasure of playing.
For young athletes, that balance matters. Ambition provides direction, but enjoyment gives players a reason to return to training when progress is less obvious and the medals are temporarily elsewhere.
Young Hammers meet the players they hope to follow
For Freya and Molly, the surprise transformed a trophy presentation into a close-up view of the career they would like to pursue.
Freya, who plays for the U14s, reflected on both the team’s season and the opportunity to meet two senior players.
“It’s been an amazing season to play with the girls and win all these trophies,” said Freya, who plays for the U14s. “I’ve really enjoyed today and seeing the players was really good! I look up to them a lot, so to see them here was a really good opportunity for us.”
Molly, an U12s player, found particular value in seeing professionals occupying the position she hopes to reach herself.
“It was very inspirational to see professional players in the position I want to be in when I’m older. It was such a nice surprise to see them here. I’ve learnt what it means to be a footballer and I think it was beneficial for the future.”
Their reactions underline the practical value of visibility. A professional career remains demanding and highly competitive, but meeting established players can make the route feel tangible. The destination is no longer represented solely by a television screen or a distant stadium. It is standing beside the training pitch, answering questions.
What is West Ham’s Female Player Pathway?
The West Ham United Foundation’s Female Player Pathway is a structured development programme for players aged five to 18. It supports their progression on and off the pitch, with opportunities intended to help players advance through different levels of the game.
The teams’ 2025/26 trophy haul provided a conspicuous measure of their progress, although Foundation chief executive Joseph Lyons placed equal emphasis on learning and confidence.
“We’re delighted to have our young players here to show off all the trophies they won last season and celebrate the amazing year they’ve had,” he said.
“The work we do in collaboration with our women’s team is really important. Our part is making sure that the young players coming through the pathway are learning and building their confidence, and the fact they’re winning trophies is amazing as well.
“Our ambition is to see players from the pathway make their debut for the first team, so it’s also been great to have Katie and Laia here, as they are role models who have such a positive impact on our young players.”
The stated ambition gives the programme a clear sporting purpose. It is not merely about participation or collecting youth-level medals, impressive though the current stack may be. The longer-term objective is to create players capable of reaching West Ham’s first team.
That progression will not be achieved by inspiration alone. Coaching, sustained development, opportunity and patience all matter. Yet placing first-team footballers inside the pathway environment helps make the club’s intended route visible.
New signings begin to understand West Ham’s community
Zelem and Codina joined West Ham permanently during the summer and were among nine additions to the women’s team. Their appearance at The Foundry was the first visit to the community hub for both players.
For new signings, learning a club involves more than understanding a manager’s system or remembering which corridor leads to the treatment room. It also means understanding the people, neighbourhoods and programmes attached to the badge.
Zelem was impressed by the scale of the Foundation’s work.
“It’s an amazing place,” said Zelem. “The fact they provide 35-plus courses for 60,000 people is something to be really proud of. Community is a huge part of West Ham United, and today symbolises that.”
Codina similarly expressed a desire to remain involved with the Foundation.
“I’m so impressed and I want to be involved with the Foundation because there’s something really nice going on here.
“As a new signing, it’s important to get to know the community around West Ham, as well as the history of the Club. It was important to come here in my first weeks to get to know the people. Sometimes we focus on what’s on the pitch, but the people in the background are just as important.”
Her point applies neatly to player development too. First-team debuts are the visible end product, but the work behind them is distributed across coaches, families, development staff, teammates and community programmes.
West Ham’s ambition is straightforward: to see players from the pathway make their first-team debuts. The trophies suggest the teams are learning how to win; the afternoon at The Foundry showed why the route itself matters.
A pathway becomes much easier to believe in when the next step is standing in front of you, boots on, joining the session.
