Rookie with a dream
Georgia Stanway is finding inspiration in a legend’s message
There was a pair of football boots left in Georgia Stanway’s locker at Manchester City along with a message: “Go and do something special.” The signed boots were left by Carli Lloyd, a legend of the game, who, at 36, is a two-time Olympic gold medallist, playing in her fourth World Cup for the United States and a former team-mate of Stanway’s at City.
“I have definitely tried to live by that and do something that has never been done before,” Stanway says of that message. “I’m from Barrow-in-Furness and not a lot of people get out of the area. In order to achieve something you’ve got to kind of leave and try and find it yourself and I think that’s what I’ve done.” She has. As did Lloyd, who will now line up against the 20-year-old, who is the youngest member of Phil Neville’s
England squad, in
Tuesday’s World Cup semi-final in Lyon. “I remember going into the changing rooms [at City] and not being able to speak and thinking, ‘This woman has won everything,’” Stanway says. “It’s inspiring to see her journey. If I can get a little taste of that then dreams will come true.” Dreams do come true and Stanway is living hers. The effort, including the extra hours with Lloyd, doing shooting practice after training at City are paying off for the forward. “Everyone’s journey is different,” Stanway says before explaining hers. It is – like Lloyd’s and like those of many top-class players – a testimony to determination, desire and hard work even if she has also come a long way quickly. Just four years ago, Stanway was awaiting her GCSE results and getting up in the middle of the night to watch England in another World Cup semi-final, losing to Japan in Canada. Now she is not just facing the likes of Lloyd but is alongside Steph Houghton.
There is a photograph from the 2014 FA Cup final, which went viral before this year’s final, of her as a young girl alongside Houghton.
This year Stanway scored and put in a player-of-thematch performance in City’s win over West Ham at Wembley. “The picture shows how much things have changed,” Stanway says. She was at Blackburn Rovers at the time and tells her story. “My pathway was with the boys [in Barrow] until I wasn’t allowed any more, which was 11.” She took a year off, pursuing other interests, such as ghyll scrambling around the lakes before football called again. “That’s when I had to make a decision and kind of sacrifice my life because the nearest club was two hours away,” Stanway says.
“I joined Blackburn academy and I was there for four years. It was two hours there, two hours back, three times a week. So that kind of jeopardised my schooling and jeopardised my social life and it took a lot of sacrifice. But it’s paid off otherwise I wouldn’t be sitting here.”
Her family – both her parents are teachers – also made sacrifices. Stanway recalls finishing the day at Dowdales School and standing on the corner of a street, dinner in hand, waiting to be taken to Blackburn.
“The same corner,” she says. “I was picked up at 3.50 and then we just headed to Blackburn and I got back at half 11. School the next day. But my teachers were unbelievable, especially at secondary school, because I didn’t need to do extra-curricular activities like PE and dance. That’s when I took the time and had one-to-ones just to make sure that I was getting what I needed to get my GCSEs.
“My first two years at Blackburn I loved it but I also didn’t know whether that was what I wanted to commit to – just because it was so much and because you don’t know if you are good enough. Going up the age groups maybe one of you will make it to the seniors, one person from this age. There are 23 girls here out of the whole of England. It’s ridiculous.
“That’s when I worried and I’d cry and get upset and think whether this was what I wanted. When I got my first call-up for England, I knew straight away that this was my love and this was what I wanted to pursue.”
And what if someone had predicted four years after collecting her GCSEs she would be preparing for a World Cup semi-final? “I wouldn’t have believed it. I would have told you to go away, you are dreaming,” Stanway says.
The pubs and the cricket club at Barrow will be full on Tuesday, watching the game, recalling how one of their own has made it this far, wearing England shirts with “Stanway” on the back.
“We are getting the support that the men got last year and obviously we wanted to mirror that coming here,” Stanway says. “We are so determined to go on and win this now.”
‘When I got my first call-up for England I knew that this was my love and what I wanted to pursue’