Jill Scott always tends to stand out from the crowd in China but her latest visit, to Yongchuan, has offered confirmation that she really is a woman apart. In winning her 100th senior England cap on Tuesday as Mark Sampson’s side beat Australia 1-0 in a friendly tournament, the 5ft 11in Manchester City midfielder joined an elite club.
“To look at the calibre of players who’ve made 100 appearances, girls like Kelly Smith, Fara Williams and Casey Stoney, it’s amazing to join that list,” says Scott as she braced herself for the long flight back to England and a few days combating the jet lag prompted by an eight-hour time difference.
“It’s Halloween at the weekend so I’ll probably dress up as a vampire – I’ll look like one anyway after the journey,” jokes the 28-year-old, who senses fate decreed she would reach her milestone in China. “I’m ecstatic. It’s a massive honour to get 100 caps and I’m especially pleased for my family and friends who’ve supported me all these years,” she adds. “A lot of people have said it’s a shame it’s happened somewhere they weren’t able to get to but China’s been an important place for me.
“I’ve got a small tattoo on my ankle – it’s a couple of Chinese symbols. They mean “success” and I’ve been successful in this country. Playing in the 2007 World Cup here was a big breakthrough for me – it was a big call on the part of Hope Powell [Sampson’s predecessor] to give me the responsibility she did – and now this has happened.”
By uncanny coincidence the tournament, in which England lost 2-1 to the hosts on Friday before Isobel Christiansen’s winner saw off Australia, clashed with Xi Jinping’s visit to England. At almost any other time of the year Scott would probably have found herself being introduced to the Chinese president and George Osborne when the chancellor took his guest on an escorted tour of Manchester City’s training facilities last week.
She and her fellow Lionesses have been much in demand for similar flesh-pressing appearances since England’s success in the summer’s World Cup in Canada, where they exceeded all expectations by reaching the semi-finals and beat Germany in the third-place play-off.
Suddenly the boys who mocked Scott for playing football when she was growing up on Wearside are queuing up to have selfies taken alongside her. Still as refreshingly down to earth as ever, she simply takes everything in the long, unerring, stride which, as a teenager, made her a cross-country star with Sunderland Harriers.
A subsequent switch to the town’s football team followed by moves to Everton and now City may have swept Scott to the point where David Beckham was delighted to pose alongside her for pictures at Wimbledon in the summer but the route has encompassed plenty of “hard yards”.
A few were covered in Yongchuan, a part of South-west China capable of making Moncton, the charmingly sleepy town in which England were domiciled for the first part of Canada 2015, seem positively vibrant.
Scott and her fellow Lionesses need their caffeine and, back in June, they were frequently found sipping lattes in the coffee shops punctuating Moncton’s Main Street. The last few days have been a little different.
“Yongchuan’s interesting and this tournament’s been a great experience for us but it’s not Shanghai. We finally found a coffee shop the day before the Australia game,” she says. “Which was a shame as we could have done with discovering it earlier. A few of the girls have been saying that anyone setting up coffee bars here could make a fortune. A business opportunity is being missed.”
After almost a decade her England career can probably be mapped through visits to assorted coffee outlets scattered across the globe but Scott struggles to comprehend that she really did win her first cap – as a substitute in a 4-0 win against Holland – back in 2006.
“It seems like yesterday,” she says. “It’s going to take some time to sink in that I’ve got to 100.” By way of accelerating the process Sampson and his backroom staff joined her team-mates in making a big fuss on Tuesday when she was presented with a specially made commemorative DVD. “I’ve got a lot to thank all the players and staff I’ve worked with for,” says Scott who, despite considerable promise, gave up athletics after realising she was more of “a team person”.
Sketchy Chinese internet reception dashed her hopes of watching her favourite male side – Sunderland – beat Newcastle United in Sunday’s derby but she was suitably delighted by the result. “A massive win,” she says. “And it’s always nice to be able to wind up Newcastle fans.”
It seems a long time since she traded jokes with colleagues of a black-and-white persuasion while working as a coach in Gateshead. Back then far too many hours were spent making the 350-mile, seven-hour round trip to Everton for evening training sessions, drinking countless cans of Red Bull while struggling to stay awake at the wheel.
Happily the increasing professionalism of the Women’s Super League has changed the game’s landscape beyond recognition – not to mention improving England to the point where they are realistic contenders to win Euro 2017 in the Netherlands.
“More players turning professional has transformed the standard, technically and physically,” says Scott. “And clubs like Manchester City [where the women’s team share outstanding facilities and top coaches with their male equivalents] are raising the bar. We got a crowd of 3,200 for our final WSL game of the season. The quality’s so much better now. I’m lucky to be playing football at the moment.”
Anyone who has watched Scott accelerate seamlessly from box to box, or use her exceptional vision to recalibrate a game’s attacking angles as she controls central midfield, will feel similarly fortunate.
