England Lioness Nikita Parris has urged more sponsors to invest in women's football to pave the way for the younger generation of stars and capitalise on the success of the World Cup.

The 25-year-old Olympique Lyonnais and England forward has been named as one 15 Team Visa footballers the financial giant is representing to help reach their full potential and believes this is the key time invest in the women's game. 

Speaking at the Team Visa Summit in London she said: “It’s important that you have brands like Visa to be able to put a spotlight [on the game] and show that it’s our time. That time is now. It’s not in five years, six years, it’s right now. Let’s make change, now.”

Team Visa was initially a scheme exclusively for Olympians but was expanded to female footballers for the first time off the back of the successes of this year's World Cup in France.

Visa are considered one of the biggest sponsors of women's football alongside Barclays and Parris praised their work for inspiring the future. 

This investment is not just to support star footballers but also works towards building the game in the community and helping people in their lives.

“Visa is innovative," said the Toxeth-born star, "it helps change the landscape of not just sport, but people’s lives in many areas that might not have even heard of and in many countries that people might not have even heard of."

European Head of Marketing at Visa, Adrian Farina said: “We’ve been involved in sports in many years and we’re not just looking for another property to sponsor, but we realised there was something missing.

“We want to drive positive change by treating women’s football how it's meant to be.”