WOW! TESS LOVES HER NEW LIFE ON CITY ROSTER
MANCHESTER City new girl Tessel Middag is no stranger to the life of a champion footballer.
However, the Dutch international admits her new club is a cut above anything she has experienced so far.
The 23-year-old, capped 36 times by Holland, arrived at the Academy Stadium in June and has proved a hit for the Citizens already.
Middag has featured in all three of their games since her arrival, breaking her goal duck early in the 8-0 Continental Tyres Cup rout of Aston Villa.
With Eredivisie and Dutch Women’s Cup winners’ medals already from spells at ADO Den Haag and Ajax, Middag will hope to add to her collection this season with City sitting pretty atop the WSL.
She concedes she has already been taken aback by life in Manchester and the level of professionalism at her new home.
“Everybody has helped me a lot with everything. The players and staff are all very kind, so it’s been a smooth transition for me,” she said.
“In Holland, I was playing for Ajax, the club with the best facilities, but the conditions for players here in Manchester are on another level entirely.
“It is a really professional set-up, in terms of the quality of the pitches, the gym and the full-time staff being available for everyone on the team.
“It’s a big difference from Holland, too, where not many players there are full-time.
“That makes me a better player of course because the intensity in training and in matches is much higher than I’m used to.
“At Ajax, we were in almost every day, but we were paid like semi-professionals, so this was a wonderful opportunity for me.”
A player with bags of talent, Middag initially spurned City’s advances two years ago as she preferred to stay in Amsterdam to finish her degree in history.
And, despite having City’s maiden Champions League campaign to focus on in the autumn, as well as their tilt at a first WSL title, Middag insists she will still be hard at work off the pitch.
She said: “I just finished my degree, so I’m looking forward to exploring Manchester a little bit more and visiting some of the museums here.
“It’s still something I’m hugely interested in, but I’m not doing anything with it at the moment.
“I will start a part-time masters course in international relations here in Manchester from September.
“The plan is always to be using my brain.
“It’s all about balance, and the studying doesn’t have to be too intense and affect my football career.
“But, when it’s do-able, I think it helps to get some distance from football every now and then.
“Football has been the most important thing for me for my entire life, but there are important things happening in the world, too, and I want to find out more about them.
“I want to be an educated and balanced person.”