Helga had spotted a pigeon just outside the changing rooms at Poltonhall Sports Complex in Bonnyrigg, and everything about her – ears, tongue and tail – said she would dearly have liked to chase it. She resisted, and stayed on task. Helga is a three-year-old black labrador, a guide dog, and her partner is Sam Gough, captain of the England women’s blind football team.
Gough, 23, is preparing for the 2026 IBSA Women’s Blind Football European Championship, which begins in Istanbul on Saturday. She says her everyday life has changed since she was paired with Helga last year, describing the moment as liberating. “It was as if I was a bird trapped in a cage and finally was able to fly and spread my wings,” she said. Training full-time in two sports, she had previously depended on her parents to drive her up and down the country, and now travels to camps on her own.
She learned she would be getting Helga while sitting in a nail salon having her nails done, and remembers crying when the phone call came. Growing up, she set herself goals such as working out at what age she would be able to go to the shops independently for milk; she gave herself until 18 and did not manage it. Once Helga arrived, one of the first things she did was go to the local shops for a pint of milk.
Gough is based in Edinburgh and has cerebral vision impairment, caused by damage to the connecting pathways between her eyes and her brain when she was born. Her sight declined gradually through childhood, and she now competes in the B1 blind classification. Helga is a regular presence in the dugout while she trains. Although Gough is Scottish, she is eligible to play for England purely because Scotland does not have a women’s blind football team – nor does Wales – so the English side currently includes players from across Britain. She has captained England since 2022, and is regarded as one of the best strikers in the world.
Blind football is a five-a-side game in which all four outfield players wear eye masks and spectators have to remain silent during play. Players must shout “voy” before making a tackle, and metal plates inside the ball rattle to help them locate it – a design that makes the ball heavy. “When you’re striking a ball, your big toe can get quite sore. My toenail is no longer existent because you’re hitting off a metal plate all the time,” Gough said, adding that balance is vital: “You’re playing a game just through hearing and battling so your stability has to be really, really strong to your core.”
At the European Championship, England’s team – known as the Para Lionesses – will be joined by Austria and Poland, along with the host nation and a neutral para team. The inaugural women’s edition of the championship was held in Pescara, on Italy’s Adriatic coast, four years ago, when England finished as runners-up to Germany. Gough’s side also took second place at the 2025 World Championship in India, losing the final to Argentina after victories over Japan, Poland and India. This bid for a European title comes a year before the next World Championship, in October 2027 in São Paulo, Brazil.
Gough describes travelling to Turkey this week as “nerve-racking”, but draws encouragement from her team’s recent tournament record. “Our performance at the World Champs in India just really gave us the confidence we needed,” she said. “There are a couple of teams that are strong and we’re just going to go into each game really having confidence in our ability as a squad and supporting each other for it.”
Football had always been a passion during her childhood, but as her vision deteriorated she was told she would not be able to take part in sport and was removed from PE lessons, she said, on the grounds that she was a “hazard”. She was also bullied at school. “I really wanted to be involved … I thought that that dream would never really come to fruition, until I went to the Royal National College for the Blind in Hereford,” she said. “There, I tried blind football for the first time and realised the football door would open for me.” Looking back, she says she now recognises the exclusion for what it was, and it has made her a prominent advocate for inclusivity in sport and for giving young people the opportunity to play. The bullying, she says, both toughened her up and ranked among the worst experiences of her life.
In June this year Gough received an MBE in the King’s birthday honours list for her services to sport and the visually impaired community. She has taught blind football to schoolchildren, and also to the Brazilian football icons Kaká and Cafu, as well as giving demonstrations to some of Sarina Wiegman’s Lionesses. In Istanbul, it is her turn to shine.