Leah Williamson: England captain talks World Cup dreams and life away from football

Kelly Somers: Leah, good to see you – thank you for your time. Let’s start with football. I want to know the first time you played football, your first memories and also – because of something you just said to me off camera – how good were you?

Leah Williamson: The first time I played soccer, my memory was in gymnastics. I must have been five or six years old. We were waiting for our parents at the end to pick us up and the coach was a soccer fan, so we just brought out a softball. My first proper memory is playing for my local team, but my mum says that was painful.

Kelly: Because you weren’t very good?!

Leah: Yes. “You go and support your kids, but at the same time, it wasn’t exciting to watch,” she says. It’s not like I was stressing that you would become a footballer.

Kelly: When I was young, this probably wasn’t something she would have imagined for her daughter anyway, right?

Leah: No, definitely not. Especially since she couldn’t play soccer — she had to pretend to be a boy, so she’s thinking, “Well, we’ll just see how far this goes.” I used toe punt on it. I couldn’t kick a ball properly until I was 10 or so.

Kelly: This gives hope to every parent of young children, listening to this!

Leah: Yes, there is no tension.

Kelly: What is the name of your first team? What can you remember from him?

Leah: Scottish Youth Club. I was the only girl, but I was very well protected within my team. However… with other teams, it wasn’t great.

Kelly: Do you think they targeted you because you are the girl?

Leah: It was more fathers… like, ‘Don’t let her do that to you, she’s a girl.’

Kelly: I wonder what they say now. Maybe these parents are like: “I remember her.”

Leah: If you saw them, they’d probably say, “Oh, we were playing together.” I’ll say, “No, you used to give me a hard time.”

Kelly: Was there a point where you thought, “Okay, I can do this.” Is this actually something that could be a career? I imagine – going back to being a girl too – this is probably not something that is thought about much…

Leah: I had a conversation with my mom when I was about 15 and I said, “Maybe I’ll stop now.” She was like: “Okay, tell them then.” I was so scared…

Kelly: Have you honestly thought…

Leah: Yeah, we had a conversation there in the parking lot and I said, “I’m tired, you’re tired, we travel a lot, it costs a lot of money and I’m not sure…it’s a bit of a gamble, it’s not professional.”

My father always said that I would be able to earn a wage one day. I don’t know where he got that idea from, but he was pretty much saying, “Keep going, follow your dreams,” whereas I was a bit more realistic, I think. I’m a bit worried, as I’m not the loudest footballer, I can’t say that. Some of my teammates were getting talks from the first team and it wasn’t really going my way, so I was a bit realistic, like: ‘Maybe this isn’t for me.’ But I stuck to it.

Kelly: It’s a really good job you’ve done, isn’t it?

Leah: I’m glad I did. But, yeah, I would say that once I got into the first team, I was still like, ‘Okay, let’s see what happens’ and then I decided I didn’t want to go to university. I think that’s why I’m fully committed. Then on my 18th birthday, I signed my professional contract. The other option for many of us was to go to America and get a scholarship.

Kelly: Have you considered that?

Leah: Yeah – like Bend It like Beckham… I used to watch that as a kid and think, “Yes, I want to do that.” So, that was a consideration and then the game started here, and then I picked up, and I thought, ‘I don’t want to leave this – this is too exciting to be a part of.’

Kelly: Was there a turning point? Like a moment that – other than that conversation you had with your mother – if it hadn’t happened, maybe all the success wouldn’t have followed?

Leah: World Cup 2015. Like the preparation camps – you usually bring a bigger squad and you’ll have these reserve players playing with you. I was playing for Arsenal and had one season…so I turned some heads, for example.

Kelly: Did people know who you are?

Leah: Yes – and I received a call from the manager. It was Mark Sampson at the time. I had just been injured, but he called me and said, ‘I was going to bring you to preparatory camp, but don’t worry about your injury – I hope there’s a next time.’ It didn’t happen to me then. I came back and it happened again. I’m not sure if I just missed my chance. I think I had that moment in my mind and then I realized how much I cared about her. Instead of letting things happen to me, I said to myself: “No, I will try.” Then came the call-up to the England national team and I think that was when I said: “This is like a career thing now.”