Man United player Ella Toone will be striving to add a Women's World Cup winners' medal to last summer's Euro glory.
Long before Ella Toone scored in the 2022 Euros final at Wembley, life in Tyldesley looked quite different.
She could have taken a route into netball, going through the ranks of Tyldesley Netball Club, nurtured by coach and auntie Emma Toone, who has a knack for sending players onto the Manchester Thunder pathway. Speaking to England Football, she recalled: “My dad always tells me a story about when I was a newborn baby and he took me to watch the football down at our local team Hindsford Football Club.
She spent two years at the Wigan club before being scouted to train at Manchester United’s Centre of Excellence. Toone racked up 13 goals in 20 appearances for Rovers under Gemma Donnelly and five appearances for Manchester City between 2013 and 2018. “It’s the proudest thing ever to wear this shirt and wear this badge. Growing up supporting the club, it’s massive.
She travelled to England training camps from as young as 13 where she met her best friend and fellow Lionesses star Alessia Russo. “To have ‘Less by my side since we were young girls has been really nice and hopefully we can keep making lots more memories – and keep winning trophies.” And in 2018, she made the England under-20 squad for the FIFA Women's U20 World Cup, but was agonisingly ruled out through injury.
Coming on as a substitute at 1-0 down against Spain in the 2022 Euros quarter-final, she scored one of the most important goals of her career, equalising in the 84th minute to force extra time. Speaking to the BBC, she said: “It fell to me perfectly and I thought: ‘Why not? Just smack it.’ Honestly, I’ve never hit a ball like that in my life and the girls reminded me of that.“We were celebrating with the crowd then and I said to the girls, ‘Wow, we’re in a World Cup final. That’s history.’
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