Top 100 Quotes & Sayings by Steph Houghton
Explore popular quotes and sayings by an English athlete Steph Houghton.
Last updated on December 25, 2024.
Missing the chance to go to the 2007 World Cup was the biggest disappointment of my career.
Opinion of the sport is constantly getting better. Our semi-professional league is starting to change people's attitudes, and it'll get better as the years go on.
It is a bit surreal when I'm out and people are having a look or staring or wanting selfies.
At Arsenal, we train for about two hours a day and are treated just the same as the men. It makes a big difference, and it gives young girls something to aim for.
We hope girls are inspired to start playing at a younger age and try to get to a World Cup themselves.
My family have always been supportive of my career, whether it's the highs of the World Cup or when I was just starting out.
Playing for England, it's a massive honour to wear the shirt anyway, but to come and play at Wembley Stadium, in terms of how women's football has developed, it's a massive opportunity.
We'd love to be playing to five or six thousand.
I started playing with my dad, and then I started going to soccer schools in Sunderland and managed to get scouted from there.
I'm in such a privileged position to class football as my full-time job, to be captain of England, captain of Manchester City. I'm very lucky.
I don't practise indirect free-kicks, but the technique and how I strike the ball I practise a lot.
At the end of the day, you've got a job to do, and that's playing football.
My first job was working Saturdays in Sports Soccer in Newcastle. I only used to work three or four hours a week, so it wasn't a huge amount, but I do remember spending the first pay I got on a new pair of trainers.
When you're training every day, recovery is so important. I find that foam rolling helps me to make sure I don't get tight anywhere so that I keep mobilised and keep on top of things.
I've been playing semi-professional football since I was 14, really.
We're doing a lot of work in schools getting girls to play football, breaking down any taboos there might be, and we're seeing them get interested and bring their families along, where they have such a good match day experience that they're coming back.
We want to compete for every trophy at home and in Europe.
The Olympics is one of the memories that will always be with me. It changed my life for the better.
I knew there was going to be pressure on me with the captaincy. I knew people would be writing about my performances more than anyone else's, but that's not a problem because I have my dad telling me about my performance every single game, and he is my biggest critic.
Anything can happen in a cup final; that's what everybody likes about them.
We've got two semi-professional leagues; we've got many other leagues, more coaching opportunities for youngsters. You never had that when I was younger. You had to go and join in with the boys - that helped me as a player, but I think girls feel more confident playing with other girls of the same age.
The support of our fans is vital to everything that we do - we always play for our country and our fans.
We've had to pay to play. We've had to borrow kit. We've had to train on a Friday night. Maybe a lot of boys, given that opportunity, would slip away, whereas we've had the mentality to go, 'I really want this. I'm going to show that I can do this.'
I want to be the best professional and the greatest role model I can be.
We've all had meetings with the referees. We're all clear with how VAR works, and ultimately, you want the rules to be fair.
I think women should inspire. It is our duty to inspire young girls to play a sport, whether it's just for enjoyment and keeping fit or to actually go on and try and make a career out of it.
Games don't come much bigger than playing the title holders with the chance to win the trophy yourselves.
It's difficult because the men's game is so big and attracts so much money and sponsorship, and so it's always going to take priority.
The amount of TV exposure we have had and the attention women's football has got has been brilliant.
You have to be able to shut out everything else, all the distractions and criticism. There's a lot of work that went on off the pitch, a lot of conversations, to make that happen.
I think that what's happening is that girls are enjoying playing. It's a lot more acceptable, and now we have a Women's Super League with hugely dedicated female role models - really committed players who people can see are dedicated and training as hard if not harder than any male players - that's all progressing the sport.
I know other people say that football isn't easy as a sport for girls, but my family and friends have always been really supportive.
It's great to be able to bring the best players from other countries and that they want to play in our league.
The image of women's football has definitely changed. Now we've got to make sure it keeps developing.
The World Cup is what we've done all them hours for. It's why we give up normal life.
The captaincy is about putting the team first, making sure the girls are happy - that they're comfortable with the processes we have, the way that the schedule is - to be able to challenge people on and off the pitch: not telling them off, but advising them.
You would obviously like to be on BBC2, BBC1 all the time.
I don't tend to carry much cash around, as I use my bank card whenever I can.
For the women's team, our job is to be professional footballers for club and country and be the best role models we can be.
My mum and dad were always careful with money.
I've never, ever set my sights on getting 100 - it's more my family. My dad's been counting down the caps for every single home game, and he's been to every single one I've played in England.
We want to win. We want to win big football matches.
That was something I probably had to go through, a learning curve in terms of trying to develop into the captain I want to be.
You get the best out of the girls when they're enjoying themselves, when they've got a smile on their face - they're working hard on the training pitch, but they're allowed to relax off it as well.
We want to be the best in Europe.
We want to be role models.
We've got to make sure we keep the media attention on us; being on telly and in the papers gets people interested.
It doesn't get much bigger than England v. Germany at Wembley.
I think people admire us for dedicating our lives to be professional athletes. But we need more people to come and watch club games; we need to encourage girls to play football from an early age.
It's going to be a massive honour to represent your country, if selected, for the World Cup.
As a full-time athlete, you put your body through a lot. A foam roller works like a self-massage to roll out the knots in your quads, your hamstrings, and your back so that you feel looser and more prepared.
Mum stayed home to look after us, and Dad was an electrician, working long hours to support us. We never went without, but we did have to be careful.
Twitter's brilliant. It allows us to talk to fans and gets them to games.
We have to be playing near-perfect football to go and win a World Cup.
Going to the gym is essential to the position that I play, but I also enjoy keeping fit and healthy in general.
It's important I keep my feet on the ground and stay humble and still work hard.
I'm very privileged to be a professional footballer, and I want to encourage more young girls to play.
Sleep is important; I try and get about 9 hours if I can at night, but I don't tend to nap during the day.
We always want to play and be dominant with the ball, but we respect the opposition.
It doesn't get much more special than playing at Wembley in front of 70,000 people. It's definitely what dreams are made of.
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