Four years ago Nikita Parris was in Egypt, being woken up in the early hours by her mum to watch England play at the World Cup in Canada. “It was sometimes 1.30am over there,” she says. “I got on the laptop in my hotel room. Myself, my mum and my sister all crowding around, watching it, hoping the wifi was strong enough.
“They would wake me up. My mum would say: ‘Nikita, time to get up, the game’s on in half an hour …’ My mum was my alarm clock. She’s always been there for me.”
It would have been a shock if Parris, who last month joined the Champions League winners Lyon from Manchester City, had been omitted from Phil Neville’s squad this time. But four years ago it was a different story.
“I just narrowly missed out,” she says. “Mark [Sampson, the previous England manager] brought me in to the squad to be a training player, 10 days leading into the World Cup. For me, at that moment, I really took it all in.
“I knew I wasn’t going but I wanted to make sure all the girls going into the tournament were best prepared to push on. I went into the training camp to make sure they had the sort of test they were going to get from the American forwards, French forwards, Canadian forwards; to make sure that in those moments of pressure they knew they had already done it in training against me. Mark spoke to me after that and he said I would be a massive part of his plans.”
Despite having no expectations, missing out hurt. “It was massively disappointing but I respected his decision because I hadn’t been around the squad for long enough,” says Parris, now the leading scorer in Women’s Super League history. “I hadn’t really shown what I was capable of. I didn’t have that length of time to show anyone.”
The way she was told mattered. Neville has spoken extensively in the buildup to this tournament about his frustrations with how he was told as a player he was not going to World Cups. If Sampson had got it wrong, Parris might not be about to embark on her second major tournament.
“Mark and I sat down,” she says. “He had hot chocolate. I had a coffee. I remember the moment because ultimately it determined to me which way I would go. Would I give up or would I knuckle down and ensure I made the next World Cup or the Euros? That’s what my plans were. I knew I would break into it if I put everything into it and put my best foot forward.”
This season Parris has helped Manchester City to a domestic cup double and chased Arsenal’s Vivianne Miedema for the Golden Boot in the league but eventually finished three goals behind on 19. The 25-year-old’s challenge now is to make sure she is mentally ready for the world stage.
“It’s not something I’ve experienced before but ultimately I don’t really think of that,” Parris says. “My whole thought process going into this is that I’m best prepared, no matter what the moment is, and to really show what I can do. I’ve got friends, teammates around me to make sure I don’t overthink the situation.”
Dealing with the expectations of a nation is hard, but she welcomes the pressure. “I think they should be excited,” she says. “We have got a lot of quality, a lot of different talents and great depth. Each and every game could be different. The gaffer isn’t afraid to mix up the squad and it will bring a different element. It’s an exciting time for English football.”
With the team having made two semi-finals in four years, in Canada and at Euro 2017, the pressure is high. Parris, though, throws the 2009 Euros finals into the mix too. “The girls in ’09 won silver – it’s time for gold.
“We’re under no illusions how hard that is going to be. We’ve put so much hard work in. Our journey has not been easy but we played some of the best teams in the world on American soil in the SheBelieves and came out winners so we have it in us to compete. We’re ready for it.”
