Leah Williamson: ‘My mum used to put the headlights on for me to run’
The England captain and Arsenal defender, back in her home town of Newport Pagnell to open a 3G pitch, talks about how setting an example is her ‘superpower’
Leah Williamson pauses and looks around at the girls kitted out in their green Newport Pagnell kit. “I’m 27 now: when I was their age, I didn’t have a girls’ team to join,” she says. “You go back another however many years to when my mum was playing and she had to cut her hair and pretend to be a boy.
“We’ve just come so far and I’m happy that I get to watch it and be part of it in that way. It drives me to keep playing and be part of the team.”