Arms hooked over the bar at the front of the bus, sunglasses on, a drink in one hand and the other pointed towards the fans as she moved to the music and joined in with the singing and chanting, Alessia Russo was having a blast.
“I had the time of my life that day,” says the Arsenal forward of the 9km parade through the red smoke-filled streets of north London after Arsenal men’s Premier League triumph and Arsenal women’s Champions Cup success.
It has been a running joke among fans to refer to the 27-year-old as a “childhood Gooner”, which was turbo-charged when the shirt a very small Russo was wearing in a family photo with the FA Cup was changed from a Manchester United one into an Arsenal one.
While she was not a childhood Gooner, she is fast becoming an adult one.
“Since I’ve joined the club and seen the people around the place, it’s impossible to not become a part of Arsenal and to feel like I support Arsenal,” she says. “I want them to do well, I’m backing them every way, and the parade was just one of the most amazing things I’ve experienced. The fans, the atmosphere, celebrating the men winning the Prem, something they’d worked so hard for for so many years, I was just soaking it in, having fun and enjoying myself.
“It was just a really, really special day. It was nice to experience it with Lotte [Wubben-Moy] and Leah [Williamson] who are proper Gooners, but when you come to Arsenal you take on a part of it and start to understand and absorb their love for Arsenal. I definitely feel that and it’s nice to feel like you’re a part of something like that.
“You pick out moments where you win trophies as the main ones that stand out within your career, but that will definitely always stand out for me.”
There were people everywhere, on every balcony, rooftop, bollard and traffic light, of all ages, races and religions. Young boys, but also, in contrast to the Arsenal parades of the 90s and noughties, so many young girls. Cultivating and supporting that fresh generation interested in watching and playing the game is something Russo is passionate about.
That is the reason she launched her own foundation this year and why she helped launch the fifth year of Starling Bank’s Kick On initiative. This partners local businesses with girls’ teams in need of sponsorship and subsidises the front-of-shirt sponsorship.
Starling commissioned surveys of 1,000 adult female players, 1,010 11-17 female players, 501 small- and medium-sized business leaders and 1,092 grassroots football coaches. Nearly every grassroots female football club (97%) said their team needed more funds, with opportunities for girls suffering as a result. The surveys found 76% of female players said they will have to drop out of their team or the sport altogether if more funding is not secured in the next five years, and 40% of female players said their team does not receive the same amount of funding as men’s teams.
“They are quite damning statistics, which is such a shame considering the growth we see in the women’s game,” says Russo. “Over the past five or six years, the growth has just been incredible, but there’s still work to do at the bottom to build it up.”
The risk is that women’s football loses momentum and fails to attract potential star players into the pathway. “I always say you never want to miss out on the next Leah Williamson or Lotte Wubben-Moy, you don’t want to miss out on talented young players just because they haven’t got a local team, or the team that they were at folds,” Russo says. “It seems like such an easy fix as teams don’t need much, but obviously it isn’t because it’s still a problem.
“I look back on all the people I met through my grassroots journey and every single one of them played a part in my career and I’m still friends with many of them. If local businesses can invest in one team, you never know, you might help produce a superstar who goes on to have an incredible career who will always remember you being a part of it.
“There’s more to it than just investment, it’s that you can have a say in a core part of these young girls’ journeys and lives.”
With no major international women’s tournament, Russo has enjoyed a rare summer off and she has had the chance to focus on the broader issues she is passionate about, as well as some much-needed rest.
“It was important I did have some proper downtime,” she says. “Over the past few years, the minutes and tournaments have increased, so I needed to look after my body and get myself in a good place mentally. I shut down for about two and a half weeks and just enjoyed time with friends and family, which was lovely, but by the end of it I was ready to start exercising again, I didn’t know what to do with myself.
“I quite enjoy training on my own over the summer, you get to know your best routines and habits. I often go on holiday with my family and train out there, which is nice because everyone wants to get involved.
“I just took time for myself too, being a normal 27-year-old girl, going on holidays. I went to the England v Panama game in New York and got to be a fan and be around that buzz of the World Cup. I had Toonie’s [England teammate Ella Toone] hen do and wedding, which was amazing.”
Russo had a standout year in 2025-26; many believe her game moved up a level for club and country. “I’m pleased with my season for Arsenal and England from a personal point of view, but, ultimately, I’ll always judge it on the trophies we win,” she says.
“We’ve learned a lot as a team over the past couple of years at Arsenal, but are hungry for the new season. We’ve made it quite clear we want to do everything we can to be the team most capable of winning the WSL and Renée [Slegers, the coach] has set the standard high this pre-season.
“We’ve got seven new players, we’ve got a squad that’s raring to go, the competition in it is high. I feel happy, but now I want to continue to push on with Arsenal and England and win some trophies.”
