OFF THE RECORD WITH JILL SCOTT
Published: 28/06/2025, Words by: Alex Courbat | Photography by: Adam Horton
Jill Scott is one of England's most celebrated footballers. A European Championship winner, a 161-cap international and National Football Museum Hall of Famer. The recipient of an MBE. She’s achieved nearly everything possible for both club and country. But her true legacy doesn't just lie in the trophies she's won – it's in the barriers she's broken and the path she's paved for others. With the Women's Euros around the corner, we sat down with Jill to talk about her journey, the game now and the legacy she leaves behind.
Jill's football story begins where so many do; in a schoolyard at five years old, ball at her feet, playing with whoever she could. But what makes her story different is what happened next – how being told she couldn't play with the boys anymore became the spark for something much bigger. "I always remember thinking, if somebody took football away from me, they'd be taking away my world," she says. That's when the resilience in young Jill started building. A resilience that would carry her through a career that spanned almost two decades and helped transform the face of women's football forever.
The transformation Jill witnessed is almost impossible to comprehend. "I think if I look back to how women's football was when I was younger to where it is now, it's just like two completely different sports." She says, smiling. "When I was younger, I had a dream that didn't even exist, whereas young girls now, they can see that England team, they can see Chelsea, Man City, Man United."
That shift obviously didn't happen overnight, but Jill can pinpoint when the momentum really began to build. "I think the moment when I look back and think football was starting to change was maybe 2012 Olympics representing Team GB and just seeing 90,000 people at Wembley for the football. I think that was when women's football started to get the momentum."
Three years later came the 2015 World Cup in Canada, where England claimed bronze and the response back home was unlike anything they'd experienced before. "I just remember looking at all the tweets and Instagram posts back home and there were even kids asking to stay off school to watch the game." Jill had a feeling then that something special was happening. "I always remember saying back then, if you don't want to support women's football, you're going to miss out on an incredible journey."
How true those words proved to be. By 2022, when she lifted the European Championship trophy at Wembley, that journey had reached heights few could have imagined. "Everybody we bump into now will tell us where they were for that game. And if you didn't see it, you missed out."
But the changes Jill lived through went way deeper than just crowd numbers and TV audiences. The very backbone of women's football was also transformed. Back then, her generation faced challenges that today's players can barely imagine, training in conditions that seem almost laughable now. "We had to take the cones out, literally nine o'clock at night, run up and down fields, dodging dog muck, because the training sessions, you were by yourself. You just had to get fit because you knew you were going to be playing against a USA team who were going to be super fit, training every single day." And when it came to kit, it wasn’t much better. "I think when I was younger, we used to rely on getting the men's team's kit that they'd used the season before."
The contrast with today's setup couldn't be more different. "Now we've got nutritionists, we've got sports scientists, we've got kit men, kit women, we've got literally everything." For Jill, this shift represented everything she'd hoped the game could become. "I think women's football now, especially playing for England, creates an environment where there's no excuse for you not to perform. And I think that's one of the biggest changes that I've seen – that the game is now professional and that's how it should have always been."
And, when people ask her if she's jealous of the youngsters signing professional contracts at 16 or 17, her response couldn't be clearer. "No, not at all. I think I'm just so excited for them to get that opportunity that they deserve." This generous spirit runs through how Jill views her own legacy. For her, individual success was always part of something bigger. "For me, it was always about when you put that England shirt on, you just leave it in a better place. It was never yours. You were just renting it really for the next player and it was such a massive, massive honour to do that."
"FOR ME, IT WAS ALWAYS ABOUT WHEN YOU PUT THAT ENGLAND SHIRT ON, YOU JUST LEAVE IT IN A BETTER PLACE. IT WAS NEVER YOURS. YOU WERE JUST RENTING IT REALLY FOR THE NEXT PLAYER AND IT WAS SUCH A MASSIVE, MASSIVE HONOUR TO DO THAT."
Looking ahead, she knows exactly what she’d like to see: "I think we need to remember that there are still so many clubs below the top level of the Barclays Women’s Super League (WSL), and unfortunately, some have folded over the years. So, I’d like to see a lot of improvement in the lower tiers to help maintain strength throughout the women's game."
While she's clearly focused on what still needs to happen, she also knows it's just as important to appreciate how far the game has come. "I think it's also good sometimes to pause and reflect and look how far the game has come over the years. And I think if we can do that in the next 20 years, it's so exciting for where the women's game's going to be."
Football was, is – and always will be part of Jill’s DNA. "I still want to be part of it because I think without women's football, it would be a massive, massive loss to my life." But looking back, that five-year-old playing in the schoolyard could never have imagined the journey ahead – the setbacks, the breakthroughs, the quiet battles and the historic wins. But perhaps that's exactly the point. Legacy isn't something you set out to create. It's built one moment at a time, one match at a time, one barrier broken at a time. All it takes is to start.
The dream that Jill carried as a child, the one that "didn't even exist" back then, is now inspiring countless young players everywhere. And maybe that's the greatest win of all – knowing that the next generation won't have to dream of something impossible, because Jill and her teammates made it possible.
