Janaya Baroudi heading to Spain off the back of success at Illawarra Stingrays

The 16-year-old will have the chance to train with elite coaches, competing at a high level after being selected for the Sydney All Stars team. It will progress her career with her main goal of making it professionally.

With teams such as Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid competing in the competition, it could well be a career changing tournament.

But from reaching the heights of the prestigious Mallorca Cup, Baroudi has been plugging away in the Illawarra for her whole life.

"So I started football when I was four at Russell Vale for about five years in the mixed team," the Figtree High School student said.

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"Then I went to Unanderra after we moved houses and then went to South Coast, before moving to the Stingrays and I've been there for six years and I've enjoyed it.

"[At the Stingrays] I think I've developed as a really good player. My coach Ewan Boff has really improved me as an individual and he's got the whole team so far.

"When I found out I was going to Spain I was pretty stoked because I've never been overseas before. So I took the opportunity straight away. I feel like I'll have the opportunity to play different football over there and experience other countries and how they play as well and just have a feel for what football is like in other countries."

Off the inspiration of the FIFA Women's World Cup on home soil, Baroudi is hungrier than ever to achieve her goal of becoming a full-time footballer.

"I feel like it's a really good opportunity because if I want to succeed in my career I need to get exposure. So when I'm playing over in the tournament, there will be lots of people watching and I feel like it will just be really good to just get exposure outside Australia.

"I'm the only one in my team that's going so I'm a bit nervous because I don't know many people, but I make friends pretty easy.

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"I really want to make a Matildas camp so I'm striving to achieve one of those. My coach has gotten people into the junior Matildas before so if I have exposure with her she could take me to the next level."

Baroudi's family have set up a GoFundMe page to help with the excessive costs for the trip. If you would like to donate, you can do so here.

Baroudi will fly out for Spain next month with the tournament to be held between October 7-16.

Baroudi was part of the Illawarra Stingrays league championship winning team at the weekend.

The Stingrays claimed the title with a comprehensive 4-1 win against Sydney Olympic at Macedonia Park.

Next up is the finals series where the team will take on FNSW Institute, where they will look to progress straight to the grand final.

Baroudi said it was a moment that the team had certainly earned.

"We trained really hard and it was all leading up to this moment," she added.

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"So we deserve it because we've been first all year and we've done a lot of hard work and it's just really good. Most of us didn't expect it [at the start of the season] to be honest, but from the start of the year we were constantly shocking teams and making big statements."

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