Exclusive: An interview with footballing legend, Steph Houghton

Image: Steph Houghton during today's 'Made For This Game' event. Credit: Hannah Wood for Constancy Football

Written by Darcey Slater and interviewed by Hannah Wood

Today was the Biggest Ever Football Session, encouraging girls to get involved in the game. Football legend Steph Houghton led an outdoor session alongside Lia Lewis at a school in Manchester to give students an insight into her role within the game and to share her unique journey into football. Alongside this, Emma Sanders was also in attendance hosting an indoor session showcasing opportunities away from the pitch

We spoke to Steph about the impact of the session and girls finding a place inside and outside the game.

Coming from you, a legend of the women's game, how important do you think it is for girls to be exposed to participating football at school?

"It's massive, and I think it's so important for the future of the game. They are the future, and they can get a feel about what football is. It is not necessary to want everybody to become a footballer, but know that there is a pathway to be involved in football in the future"

Seeing all of these girls here today, do you wish events like this happened when you were in school?

I do, to be honest, I do and I don't because I was really I love the journey that I went onto become the player that I was and to play England clubs at Manchester City, Arsenal, Sunderland that journey was so special to me. But I think for me like this opportunity for girls so far greater than when I was younger and like today to be able to see the girls enjoying themselves being with their mates and still learning things which is really impressive these opportunities and definitely a lot more of the girls to try and hopefully we can get a few legends of the games out of their the session that we did today. 

Last year, there was a record-breaking 475,000 girls doing events like this all across the country. Do you think these attendance rates are going to grow across the country?

Yeah, that's the aim, I think that's why we're here for the campaign today and encourage the numbers to keep steadily rising. It's so important that we keep it accessible for young females and young girls and every to have the opportunity to try something different, never done it before, we continue with the great work we are doing, and it was very special to be part of that today.

Currently going on, we have an introduction of classroom based activities to showcase various opportunities away from the pitch. Coming from a player perspective, how important do you think it is to show girls that they have a place in the game even away from the pitch?

I think for me this is so crucial for the future, for what we want to try and achieve in with women's football in this country, it's so important. If you end up not making it by being on the pitch, you can have a voice and have an influence on the future of the game. From grassroots level to the elite level in terms of the WSL and the Lionesses, I think it's amazing, and I would've absolutely loved that. When I was playing, I was thinking how I could stay in the game and what could I do. And there's so many opportunities to do that now. 

You've seen the girls here today, but do you think these kind of events are helpful with showing the boys girls and women can play in not only football but all types of sport?

Yeah, I think it's visual, and if you can see things that are happening and other people can see things that are happening, then that's going to have the biggest effect on young boys. You can see when we were training today, the young lads wanted to join in, and they wanted to be part of it and stuff. You obviously want them to be mixed; you want them to be doing this at the same time, but ultimately, sometimes that can't happen. But to show how many girls were involved in that session today, hopefully, they can be like we want to try and get as good as what the boys are. 

We are seeing a massive and continuing rising in girls participating in sport. What would your message be to those girls and any that want to get involved like those you saw today? 

First of all, go and try it and see if you enjoy it. Second of all, always ask questions. If you want to do something apart from being on the pitch the opportunities are there. And most importantly, believe in yourself, I think you've got to have that confidence and hone in that you are apart of this game as much as anyone else.