To say it’s been a whirlwind few years for Chelsea’s Bethany England would be something of an understatement.
As little as five years ago, England combined playing on a semi-professional basis with Doncaster Rovers Belles in the Women’s Super League with working night shifts in a Barnsley fish and chip shop as she tried to earn enough money to get by, and, most importantly, fund her dreams of becoming a professional footballer.
Fast forward to 2019 and the 25-year-old is one of the hottest prospects in the WSL, having hit 22 goals in all competitions for Chelsea last season. She went viral back in August when scoring a stunning 30-yard strike against Tottenham at Stamford Bridge.
Such form saw her finally rewarded with her maiden England call-up and the forward is now being touted as the Lionesses’ future no9, having scored her first international goal against Brazil earlier this month.
Her upbringing means England appreciates how much she’s achieved so much more than she would have done had she perhaps been a professional since a teenager, and the 25-year-old now has her eyes firmly set on helping Chelsea lift the WSL title this season.
Speaking exclusively to talkSPORT, the striker said: “I worked about four years on night shifts at a chip shop in the city centre of Barnsley. I’d start at 10pm and finish at 6am on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
“There’d be times where I’d work a Friday night, have two or three hours sleep, get up and go and play a game and if it was an away game, I wouldn’t get back to 8pm or 9pm at night. I’d shower, get my tea quickly and get back out to work.
“It was a lot to balance for three or four years. I lost a lot of sleep. And on top of that I was doing my A Levels at college, so how I got through it I’ve got no idea.
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“I’ve done loads of jobs; I’ve worked in a factory, in a bakery, in a chippy and I worked at M&S for a long time as well. Now, I’m very appreciative that I get to wake up every day and play football and do the job I love.
“For the girls last season, after coming away with nothing, it really hit home for them and we [Chelsea] are as hungry as we’ve ever been.
“We want to win the league, we want to win the FA Cup and we want to win the Continental Cup, which is something Chelsea has always fallen short of. There’s no doubt that the girls are hungry and they’ll be out to win every trophy that they can this year.”
Free-scoring England hasn’t always played up front, however, with her versatility perhaps being her undoing during her early years at Chelsea; she featured in midfield and filled in at wing-back following her move to London in 2016.
However, it was during a loan spell at Liverpool during the 2017/18 season when the striker really discovered her goalscoring form, and it was a certain Reds icon whom England admired when she was younger.
“Steven Gerrard was always my idol football wise,” she continued. “I just loved him. He could strike a ball like no other.
“Although we play different positions – as he was a midfielder and I’ve always been more of a forward – his vision and everything he does for the game was unbelievable.
“[In the women’s game] my idol was Rachel Yankey. I used to play as a winger quite a lot as a kid and she had a wand of a left foot. It’s quite crazy as she came and trained with us a few times at the training ground last year. It still hits you a bit that you’re training with such a legend of the game.”
England now has the privilege of being coached by one of the greatest managers in the women’s game, Emma Hayes, who was mentioned by some as being a possible contender to replace Maurizio Sarri as Chelsea men’s head coach earlier this year.
Hayes has placed a lot of trust in England, handing her the no9 shirt this season, and the 25-year-old is determined to repay the faith shown in her.
She finished: “The fact that her name was being thrown about for the men’s job says a lot about her and is credit to her.
“Everything she does is with a drive to make the women’s game better. You look at our backroom staff now at Chelsea and it’s the best you can possibly get, whether it’s nutrition or women’s health in general.
“It’s really hard to find a manager driven to put so much effort into making women’s football so great.”
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