Jill Scott on England's Euros win, team spirit and the 2023 World Cup

"That moment when the whistle blew, seeing the crowd go up, and the time on the pitch after – that’s what I think about," she says in the familiar Wearside accent, blue eyes blazing with the memory.

"We stayed on the pitch for 90 minutes afterwards just to take it all in. I still get goosebumps thinking about it. If I have days where I’m a bit tired or I feel like I’ve got too much to do, I think to myself, ‘I won the Euros,’ and I just smile.

"Sometimes a long-held dream doesn’t provide the fulfilment you thought it would, but I never set those long-term goals and it was only recently I realised why. As an eight-year-old girl growing up in Sunderland, I wanted to be a footballer but that [option] didn’t exist. I didn’t want anyone to take that idea away from me, so I just went day by day playing football, protecting the thought in my mind.

"I had 16 years in the England team – a lot of struggles, a lot of defeats along the way. Sometimes now it feels surreal. I still feel like little Jill who loved football, and got a bit bigger during an incredible journey with amazing people."

One of four siblings, little Jill grew up to be six foot tall and a giant of the game – her 161 England caps are the second-most of any player, male or female. Early on, her lean frame informed her gift for endurance running, earning her Junior Great North Run and North of England cross country titles.

But football came even more instinctively to Scott, who first kicked a ball when she was five – and as she entered her teens, there was no contest over which sport she would prioritise.

Her first club was Sunderland, and from there Scott played for Everton, Manchester City and Aston Villa, earning an MBE by 2020, long before the Euros zenith. Phil Neville, who managed the Lionesses for three years preceding the current Sarina Wiegman era, called Scott "the morale magician". And anyone who has ever heard her talk can understand why.

It’s a quality that shone brightly during her victorious stint on last autumn’s I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!. Without fail, Scott came over as good fun with no side, kind, seriously cool but not terrifyingly cool, and able to lift spirits. She was everyone’s trusted mate.

"Cool? Me?" she queries, grinning at the idea. "I don’t think anyone has ever called me that before. But I always work hard and try to be authentic. Whatever you’re doing, you have to keep it fun. I’ve always been the person who brings that to a football team. I like to be kind to people. If you can help someone’s day by one per cent, put a smile on their face, then why not be kind?

"I’m never not nice. It takes a lot to push us to react to stuff. If someone is annoying us, I’ll kill them with kindness. I don’t think I’m ever nasty. It’s just not in my nature. Some people might look at it as an opportunity to take advantage, but I’m one step ahead."

In 2023, Scott’s professional world has turned again. The Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand will be the first major tournament since her retirement after the Euros. She will be working at the event, compiling a regular behind-the-scenes show for the Lionesses’ social media and doing "a bit of pitchside" match analysis for ITV. But she will not be playing.

"I did 2007, 2011, 2015 and 2019 with England and this is the first one where I’m not part of the squad," she says. "If I wasn’t working there, I’d have had FOMO [fear of missing out] big time, and would have been booking flights to get out there as a fan.

"I’m just glad I’m still going to be around the girls with the Lionesses’ show. I’m at peace with the fact that I’ve retired, but I miss being with the girls so much. The other day I was at St George’s Park [the FA’s multi-million-pound Staffordshire facility for England squads] and it was like greeting my own family when I haven’t seen them for a while.

"I stayed until 9pm just talking and catching up with the team and the staff. If you go through something as life-changing as the Euros, you have such a special bond," she says.

Teams can be tricky organisms – united by a shirt, divided by cliques. But the Euro-winning Lionesses were the exception. "We just didn’t have that," says Scott. "You had natural friendships, but I can honestly say everyone got on. No one was an energy-sapper when their own journey wasn’t going according to plan, even though everyone wanted to play."

A key element in 2022’s success was team manager Sarina Wiegman. Capped 99 times for the Netherlands, as a manager the 53-year-old steered the Dutch to victory at the 2017 Euros. She began the England job in September 2021, helming a 30-match unbeaten streak that ended only two months ago, when the Lionesses lost a friendly to Australia. Scott likens her to the manager many call the best in the world.

"She reminds me of Pep [Guardiola of Manchester City], always a step ahead of the game, always planning for the next moment. Talk about influential women in sport. She’s a mastermind behind the game.

"Sarina built team spirit from the ground up with kindness and warmth, but at the same time demanded high standards. That’s how I’ve always loved to work – fun off the pitch, be there for each other, but when you cross that white line you have to give everything to win. She’s so good at instilling that.

"All the players call her Sarina, not ‘gaffer’ or ‘boss’. She will make sure England are the best-prepared team in Australia or New Zealand. She was a tenacious player and is the best person to lead the team. Any of the girls would say the same, which is very rare because not everyone is in the manager’s plans. But everyone feels the same about Sarina."

So is Wiegman’s 2023 squad as good as the Euros-winning side? "What’s important is to see this as a new journey," Scott says. "There are 16 players from 2022, so seven new ones. It’s so unfortunate that Leah [Williamson, who captained England to the Euros win], Beth [Mead, Euros player of the tournament and Sports Personality of the Year] and Fran [Kirby] are injured. But it’s an opportunity for the next generation.

"Are they as experienced? No. Do they have as much talent? Yes, 100 per cent. We have to get behind the team with the same love and support shown at the Euros. It’s a new time but I really believe we can win it."

As for Scott, these days she is effectively being herself for a living, and is hugely in demand, as her Instagram attests – mixing with Robbie Williams and Tom Hiddleston at Soccer Aid, giving motivational talks to businesses, getting football’s big names on her Coffee Club podcast for BBC Sounds, joining in Pride month, becoming the new team captain on Sky’s A League of Their Own… and still putting in the odd shift at Boxx2Boxx, the Manchester coffee shop she owns with her fiancée, former community health officer Shelly Unitt.

Scott hasn’t changed, but women’s football has. From being largely ignored, it has not only taken off in a way "little Jill" could never have imagined, but has done so as a force for good.

There is no atmosphere of latent threat in crowds at the women’s game. The culture of the sport welcomes everyone, no matter who you are, what you look like or who you love. Jill Scott is part of what made all that possible.

"What’s most important to me is the respect for the women’s game," she says. "When I think back 10 years to when there were 200 watching the big games… Did I picture 50,000 at club games and 90,000 at Wembley? No.

"The sky’s the limit, if we’re careful. The speed of the change can be a worry if you don’t have the right foundations in place. But we’re getting the crowds in based on our achievements. With solid planning, getting more young girls involved in a safe environment, we can keep progressing in the right way."

I glimpse the tattoo on her right wrist. It reads: "Day by day. Step by step. Mile by mile." Words to live by, for the thousands Scott has inspired. And if all else fails… just be more Jill.

The Women's World Cup 2023 runs from Thursday 20th July to Sunday 20th August.

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