Did you know that she signed on with Arsenal when she was only eight years old?
BY YASMIN VINCE, IMAGE BY GETTY
You’ve seen her play for England. You’ve heard her discuss the offside rule on Match Of The Day. You may even have watched her dance the Charleston to Technotronic’s Pump Up The Jam on Strictly Come Dancing. But how much do you really know about Alex Scott?
Here are six facts about the footballer-turned-pundit
She scored the winning goal at the 2007 UEFA Women’s Cup Final
Scott was eight when she was first signed to Arsenal in 1992. 15 years later, the team were having one of their best, having won the England women’s Premier League, Women’s FA Cup and Women’s Premier League Cup. The only trophy left to win was the UEFA Women’s Cup.
Arsenal faced Sweden’s Umea IK in the final. Scott scored the only goal of the match, winning the trophy for the team. Not only did this make it a quadruple season for Arsenal, but it was the first time a British team had won the cup.
She founded a football academy
The Alex Scott Academy was founded in partnership with Kingston College and Puma in 2011. Aimed at helping female footballers aged 16-19 years old, it was the first academy in the UK that intended to improve routes into women’s football.
She’s dating Jess Glynne
Scott and pop star Jess Glynne have been in a relationship since the summer of 2023. While they started dating in May that year, the two kept things under wraps for a few months. They only went public that October and since then, the two have regularly posted pictures of each other on their Instagrams.
Scott had previously revealed that she had been in a serious relationship with a woman before and had also dated men, but she has never labelled herself.
She’s written an autobiography
How (Not) To Be Strong came out in 2022. Though a lot of the book discussed her footballing journey, it also revealed that she had been in a relationship with her Boston Breakers teammate Kelly Smith from 2005 to 2013. In the book, Scott wrote that she fell “madly and deeply in love” with Smith.
Another revelation was that Scott was a victim of domestic abuse at the hands of her father throughout her childhood. She pledged all proceeds from her book would go to charities that helped women affected by domestic abuse.
She had a speech impediment growing up
In an interview with Children In Need, Scott discussed how her home situation impacted her childhood. One consequence was that she developed a speech impediment which made it difficult to speak.
One teacher who helped her overcome the impediment was a reception teacher named Miss Tuffin. She pushed Scott to pick up music as a hobby and start singing. Scott said this helped her think less about trying to get words out and therefore helped her communicate better. She was also in speech therapy and still uses the techniques that taught her to speak confidently in her work as a pundit.
She’s used her position as a pundit to be vocal about social issues
Scott has regularly spoken honestly about her experience of abuse of social media, received primarily for being a female football pundit. However, this is not the only cause she has used her position to highlight.
In 2022, due to the threat of sanctions from FIFA, several European national football associations decided to ask their captains not to wear the pro-LGBTQIA OneLove armband at the World Cup that year. However, Scott wore the armband while reporting on the England vs Iran match.
A year later, when Gary Lineker was suspended as host of Match Of The Day for criticising the government’s asylum policy on social media and allegedly breaching the BBC rule of impartiality, Scott decided not to appear on the show in solidarity with Lineker.
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