Top 40 Nikita Parris Quotes

Ever since I was kid, I dreamed of playing for England.

Football still gives me butterflies; it still makes me smile.

Opportunities for young girls, like young boys, to go into academies from a young age does happen now in England, but it doesn’t happen globally.

Me and fellow scouser Toni Duggan are a double act. We are always pre-planning some sort of practical joke.

I do a bit of boxing in the off-season to stay fit – it’s a different kind of fitness.

To be honest, I don’t feel pressure. I honestly don’t feel pressure.

Always stay in a happy medium in sport, because you never know what’s around the corner.

Our keeper, Karen Bardsley, stakes out any penalty, any free-kick, any corner. KB knows the detail of how the person will take it.

When you step up and take a penalty, it’s 50/50 – but you’ve got to back yourself.

Everyone used to say I’m a rising star, and I’ve got raw talent, but I really wanted to be, honestly, the best.

Playing at the Women’s World Cup is my long-term goal and, hopefully, I can contribute to winning a medal.

I was pretty wild as a kid. Football tamed me. It put me on the right path, got me focused.

It was never a case of male and female when I was growing up. I played with my cousins, my friends. From a young age, I played on the local streets, just with my neighbours. The majority would be boys, but a couple would be girls, so I never really thought too hard about it.

There weren’t any opportunities to be a professional women’s player until I was 16 and the WSL was formed.

The pride you feel when you represent your country, not to mention scoring, is something you can’t really explain. It’s massive.

I just want to be at the best place possible to ensure that I really kick on in my career, that I constantly have challenges, because in football, you don’t have long. It’s easy to become complacent when game time comes so easily, and you’re doing so well.

I go home every day, and my mum still lives in the same house. It’s not one of the most affluent areas of Liverpool – some may say it’s deprived – but we have an abundance of love and support.

I’m proud to say that my sister was the first female boxer in the Olympics. That’s history. She made her mark. And that’s what you want to do in any sport.

Toxeth made me who I am today – it is a great area.

I really wanted to put myself out of my comfort zone, and that meant leaving England and really changing culture and different ideas and philosophies in a club environment.

I’m the one who is always bantering. Millie Bright and Rach Daly are pretty bad. Jill Scott is up there, too, but I’m probably the one who initiates it all, and people come back at me.

Being the best is:applying yourself to your potential, putting out the best version of yourself.

I’m in a position where I can have an effect on young people. If people can take inspiration from me, that’s great.

I’d go with our dad to watch our brothers play Sunday League. When I heard all the shouts, the reaction of the crowd, I wanted it to be about me.

You have to respect America for respecting the pioneers of the game. That’s important. We do that a lot in our game in England. What they’ve done for women’s football across the world is massive.

When I step up to that penalty spot, I know the consequences. They’re the same whether I miss the first, second, third – or the 10th – it will be the same.

Our under-19s, under-20s, under-17s teams are all getting into Euro finals, World Cup finals, winning bronze medals. We’re winning bronze medals; it’s about that final step now. We’ve got to punish teams. In every game – youth games, senior games – just to push the game further.

I would love to have been a tennis player simply because of Serena Williams.

I was a natural talent, a raw talent. Then I came to Manchester City, and I learned philosophies.

You’ve got to have dedication because there’s a lot of sacrifice which goes into it – a lot of your time is minimal with friends and family, especially in the past 10 years.

Nobody’s going to give you the World Cup; nobody’s going to give you an easy game – not Scotland, not Argentina, not Japan, and not whoever we get going forward.

I think about giving back every single day, about the people who put so much effort into supporting my mum and me.

I would say the best trick I’ve pulled was putting salt instead of sugar in Phil Neville’s tea.

When we go out to train, we work hard, but when we’re back in the hotel, you want to chill out. People want to switch off from football because you spend so much time doing it. For me, switching off means playing jokes.

I recently started my own NP17 Academy within Liverpool Community College, which gives 16-19-year-old girls an opportunity to embark on a sports career, whether it be as a coach, player, physio, or nutritionist.

Completing my degree in Sports Development at Liverpool’s John Moores University while being full-time at Manchester City is one of my greatest achievements.

I grew up in an area of inner-city Liverpool. There were plenty of opportunities but also plenty of challenges – you could go down the right or wrong path, depending on one moment.

As long as I can keep one child off the streets or change one child’s life for the better, then that’s enough for me.

When I came into football, my whole identity was to be one of the best players in the world, if not the best player, and for me, that is what is driving me each and every day.

I knew from a young age what I wanted to do, but that’s not the case for everyone. Some go through different paths to reach their destination.