Top 60 Steph Houghton Quotes

To be playing in FA Cup finals at Wembley is obviously a dream come true.

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.

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.

It is a bit surreal when I’m out and people are having a look or staring or wanting selfies.

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.

I have to keep performing well for club and country. That’s what I always want to do. If I do that, then that extra media attention comes towards me.

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.

Anything can happen in a cup final; that’s what everybody likes about them.

My mum was very determined and motivated and always wanted the best for us. That rubs off on you.

I think the likes of Alex Scott and Rachel Brown-Finnis have been unbelievable in terms of the punditry they do.

It’s great to be able to bring the best players from other countries and that they want to play in our league.

I am proud to be captain of an England team who believe in themselves and enjoy the way we play.

We have to be playing near-perfect football to go and win a World Cup.

The image of women’s football has definitely changed. Now we’ve got to make sure it keeps developing.

I think that’s vitally important, that we get players playing at a younger age group.

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.

Games don’t come much bigger than playing the title holders with the chance to win the trophy yourselves.

We’ve got to make sure we keep the media attention on us; being on telly and in the papers gets people interested.

I’d like to be more assertive when it comes to confrontation. I’m fine on the pitch, but off the pitch, I’m a bit of a softy.

We want to be role models.

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.

With the likes of social media and outside influences – we’re going to be on telly a lot more – I think it’s important that you listen to the right people, whether it’s your team-mates, your parents, or your coaches, and don’t take too much to heart.

I want to be the best professional and the greatest role model I can be.

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.

Missing the chance to go to the 2007 World Cup was the biggest disappointment of my career.

It doesn’t get much bigger than England v. Germany at Wembley.

Serena is an icon of women’s sport.

My mum and dad were always careful with money.

I don’t tend to carry much cash around, as I use my bank card whenever I can.

When I was named captain under Mark Sampson, there were a lot of questions about whether I was ready for it. I wasn’t a certain starter. There were more experienced players than me; I was only 25. I was trying to nail down a centre-half spot, and it was a difficult situation.

I started playing with my dad, and then I started going to soccer schools in Sunderland and managed to get scouted from there.

I’ve been playing semi-professional football since I was 14, really.

Since the World Cup in 2015, we’ve all experienced an increase in the interest in women’s football, which has led to more and more fans supporting the team.

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.

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.

At the end of the day, you’ve got a job to do, and that’s playing football.

The support of our fans is vital to everything that we do – we always play for our country and our fans.

For women’s football in this country, it’s important we do play in the best stadiums, and for me, Wembley is the best in this country.

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.

I think there’s so many areas within the football game that women are being more involved in, and I think it’s great to see.

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.

The amount of TV exposure we have had and the attention women’s football has got has been brilliant.

As captain, I want us to be ambitious; I want us to be winners – but above all, I hope we will show how much we love the game by passing the ball and achieving success through our technical and tactical approach.

As players, we need to try to inspire young girls to keep playing because, at grass roots, we need more girls playing football.

The World Cup is what we’ve done all them hours for. It’s why we give up normal life.

I don’t practise indirect free-kicks, but the technique and how I strike the ball I practise a lot.

It’s going to be a massive honour to represent your country, if selected, for the World Cup.

You would obviously like to be on BBC2, BBC1 all the time.

We’d love to be playing to five or six thousand.

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.

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 think a massive part of players wanting to stay in England was to be able to be on the ball every day, playing the sport you love, and being able to class it as a job and dedicating your whole life to it.

I get nervous before every single game, but I think it’s a good sign. It means I care and want it to go as well as it possibly can.

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.

We want to be treated as professionals and like the male footballers.

I always knew I wanted an educational background, and my mum and dad were quite big on that.

Going to the gym is essential to the position that I play, but I also enjoy keeping fit and healthy in general.

We always want to play and be dominant with the ball, but we respect the opposition.

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 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.