The thing that sets Steph Houghton apart from the rest, the quality that has made her the captain of Manchester City and England, is an ability to embrace the bigger picture. For a leading English female footballer in 2016 this involves an almost evangelical commitment to accelerating the development of the women’s game and it explains why the 27-year-old rarely objects to her professional life spilling over into the personal sphere.
“It is a bit surreal when I’m out and people are having a look or staring or wanting selfies,” says the centre-half who led England to an impressive third place at last year’s World Cup in Canada. “But I see it as a sign we’re definitely moving in the right direction. It’s all part and parcel of growing the game and it’s important we don’t stop now.”
This process involves a concept that sometimes sits uneasily with elite athletes, but Houghton takes her status in her unflinching stride. “I want to be the best professional and the greatest role model I can be,” she says. “Since Canada especially, you get young girls tweeting saying you’re their hero so you have to be ready to accept that responsibility, to try to make a difference. I’m very privileged to be a professional footballer and I want to encourage more young girls to play.”
With the City and Chelsea squads containing a high percentage of the England Lionesses, requests for yet more selfies will inevitably be high on the agenda when Houghton’s team travel to London for the semi-final of the SSE Women’s FA Cup on Sunday. Should City win she will meet one of her former clubs, Sunderland or Arsenal – who also play in the capital on Sunday – in next month’s Wembley final.
Houghton began her career at Sunderland and it is no secret that the Wearsider has long supported their men’s team. Bizarrely though, the City press officer who has insisted on listening in to our chat vetoes a passing question about Sunderland’s Premier League survival chances and the potential blow to her native north-east should Newcastle also be relegated. Her conversation must be confined to women’s football.
It seems an own goal. After all part of the reason England fell in love with Mark Sampson’s players last summer was their openness. Whether it was Fara Williams’s experience of homelessness and living rough, Claire Rafferty’s double life as an analyst at Deutsche Bank, Karen Carney’s struggles with depression, Katie Chapman’s domestic juggling as the mother of three small children or Casey Stoney discussing being an openly lesbian parent, it brought them to life, made fans care about their game.
With the next major international tournament – the European Championship in the Netherlands – more than a year away the last thing English women’s football needs is the gagging of its leading lights. A quiet summer represents a delicate staging post in the game’s evolution with its power-brokers trusting City’s endeavours to prevent Chelsea, their principal rivals, from retaining the FA Cup and the Super League will capture the public’s imagination.
With City having poured millions into their female team there is a certain pressure for Houghton and company to end Chelsea’s monopoly. “We’ve got fantastic training facilities and top-class coaching and we very much want to be successful,” she says. “But football’s not just about money; the competition’s very tough this year – Arsenal, Sunderland and Liverpool look strong. We pushed Chelsea all the way in the league last year, but it wasn’t to be.”
Beating Emma Hayes’s side on Sunday and reaching Wembley should help compensate. “It would be another step in the right direction,” says Houghton.”
Steph Houghton was speaking on behalf of SSE, official sponsor of The SSE Women’s FA Cup
