Teen's design wins her a VIP trip to FA Cup final

A teenager said it was a "dream" to see her shirt design displayed at Wembley Stadium.

Ruby Robinson, 18, from Stanford-le-Hope in Essex, was the winner out of hundreds of entrants, competing to design a print which was worn by the Women's FA Cup final mascot and player escorts on Sunday.

Manchester City ended up beating Brighton & Hove Albion 4-0.

Ruby, who attended the final, told BBC Essex Sport Extra it was "the best thing I've ever experienced in my life".

There were over 43,000 fans at the match, with more watching the live broadcast on TNT Sports.

Ruby has been watching football avidly since the Lionesses won the European Championships in 2022.

The teenager used her graphic design skills picked up at college to win Adobe's Fan Made competition.

Ruby said she wanted to create something "completely different to anything I've ever seen before".

"When I was doing it, I did go through quite a few different designs, so it was a bit of changing it up and mixing it up," she said.

"It's something I didn't ever think would happen."

She continued: "To have my designs put out there and seen by millions of people – it's a dream!"

Ruby also got to meet former England international Karen Carney, who scored 33 goals in 144 appearances for the Lionesses.

The 38-year-old said: "For a football fan like Ruby, this can be a career-inspiring and defining moment too. It's telling young girls their ideas belong."

Ruby says she wanted the design to send a message to young girls, adding: "Young women and young girls should be in the sport industry and be able to do what they want to do when they're older – there's no stopping them."

She added: "Being in this competition has made me realise there's many different ways of getting into football, not just playing but there's so many things behind the scenes people don't see."

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