From playing against boys to being a leader for England’s women

Jordan Nobbs has come a long way from playing against a team of boys in a Morrisons car park in Stockton.

The Arsenal midfielder is set to be one of Phil Neville’s key lieutenants as England begin preparations for a home Uefa Women’s EURO 2021, despite the tournament’s shift in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

The 27-year-old came through the ranks at Sunderland before moving south to the Gunners, where last season she won the Barclays FA Women’s Super League title.

And though Nobbs is nowadays seen as one of England’s lynchpins as the Lionesses look to improve on their semi-final showing at the 2017 Euros, Nobbs could not help but draw comparisons between her own rise and the growth of the women’s game itself.

“I need to go and visit that car park!” she said.

“I grew up where, at Morrisons car park we were a team of all girls against all boys, and every weekend it’s just incredible the fact that we can now say that the game’s changed.

“Maybe I would love to be ten years younger and just grow up in a totally different environment but I think it’s more exciting to grow up in a semi-professional to then a professional world and say that we were a part of that change, so it’s pretty special.

“It’s just an incredible time I think, as any footballer right now you want to be part of Euro 2021.

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“It’s such an exciting time, the way the women’s game is going now as well, it should be even more incredible when the time comes.”

Nobbs admits that, back in 2010, she would never have expected to take part in an event that is set to sit alongside London 2012 and the Rugby World Cup in 2015 in the annals of British sporting history.

“Women’s football just keeps surprising me year by year and it’s exciting,” she said.

“It’s a great privilege to be involved in and be a part of and we just hope that everyone around us keeps pushing the women’s game and allows opportunities for girls in the future, like we’ve been allowed from the past experiences of women playing before us.

“We know we have that pressure, but I think we’ve enjoyed it and four or five years ago, when we used to write things down that we wanted to achieve, like winning the World Cup.

“One of the main points we wanted to do was build a good legacy for the women’s game and, yes, we wanted to win trophies, naturally, but we wanted to be part of a great group of girls teams, staff, for people to look up to and have role models.”