Super Fran’s 10-year rise to the top
NEARLY a decade ago, in the ‘ war room’ at St George’s Park, staff predicted the Lionesses’ starting XI for this summer’s Euros.
Very few came true, but Fran Kirby, who has started for Sarina Wiegman in every game en route to today’s final, is a notable exception. Her name was at the top of the depth chart.
Kirby, remembers Steven Fraser, seemed destined for greatness ever since her first big taste of international football, in Russia, when she claimed player of the tournament honours at the 2013
Summer Universiade.
“We always wondered,
‘ where would everyone end up?’” Fraser, who served as a talent ID scout for the England FA national teams from
2015- 2017, and now works for Arsenal’s academy, said.
“There were a lot of girls that have just stepped up and proven everybody wrong, and I love that.
“Looking back is cool, because Fran is doing exactly what we thought she would if not better.
“It’s really hard to tell in football at 19, 20 if that player would be at their peak, playing for their country, in 8- 10 years. But she’s doing it.
“I think it’s probably even more difficult to maintain that play at a high level, so I’m just thrilled for her.”
At 20, the forward was one of the youngest members of the GB squad in Russia.
“Despite being the youngest on the pitch, she was the most effective,” Fraser said.
“That kind of skill and
creativity, it was quite easy to see at that age. She really is a genius. To be able to do that, at any age, at any level, is just amazing.”
It was, he thinks, a turning point for the future Chelsea and England player, who at 14 had suddenly lost her mother Denise to a brain haemorrhage and took a hiatus from the game.
“Just treating her like a person and a footballer again, that was our main goal,” said Fraser.
“She was confident in body language but she’d never boast or brag and say ‘ I deserve this or I deserve that’.
“That motivation was always there, but to have that kind of praise in winning player of the tournament, that must have done wonders.”
Fraser hopes Sunday’s final will spark the same for millions more.
He added: “She’s been through so much, and she’s put herself in another position to win silverware.
“And, again, probably no one deserves it more than her.”