Alex Scott’s chance park encounter made her see she was ‘making an impact’ | OneFootball

Retired England full-back Alex Scott admits she did not fully grasp her own considerable influence until a chance encounter in a park.

Scott – primarily associated with Arsenal – hung up her boots and turned to broadcasting in 2017 after winning six league titles, seven FA Cups and appearing in four European championships and three World Cups.

The Staffordshire University-trained journalist and pundit has since become a television stalwart, but her rise to prominence was often accompanied by social media trolling and racist abuse.

“I didn’t know the impact I had when I was stepping in front of the camera and being on TV,” admitted Scott.

“It wasn’t until a couple of years ago, during Covid, I was coming from my mum’s, and I was walking back to my house, and there was these two black women on a park bench just having a chat, and as I’m riding by, they’re screaming my name.

“I was like, ‘this must be serious, so I’m going to stop.’ And then they were like, ‘We watch you on The One Show. We know what you go through. Keep going.’

“And I think it was not until that moment, I get emotional thinking about it, they know all the hate and the abuse and everything, but I’m making an impact.

“A young girl sat at home seeing me on a BBC platform – growing up, I never saw anyone like me – that was literally it.

No matter what keeps coming at me, I know I’m inspiring that young girl

Alex Scott

“That moment it hit me, and I was like, ‘right’, no matter what keeps coming at me, I know I’m inspiring that young girl to be like ‘there’s a place for me.’”

Scott has been so familiar with fame in her post-footballing career – which also includes a turn on Strictly Come Dancing – that a ceremony on Monday night celebrating her induction into the Women’s Super League Hall of Fame felt refreshing.

“It just brings me full circle to everything I’ve managed as a football player for Arsenal and as part of the England team,” she said.

“The reason why I’m on TV doing what I’m doing now is because of what I managed to do then.”

Scott still bleeds Gunners red, and was part of their historic – and unmatched – quadruple-winning season in 2006-2007.

The current Arsenal side also remain alive in four competitions, and resume their Women’s Super League campaign on Sunday when they host Crystal Palace.

In a twist of fate, one of the remaining frontrunners for the permanent Arsenal head coach position, interim boss Renee Slegers, was once under Scott’s tutelage when she spent time as a youth player in Arsenal’s academy.

Scott, who the now 35-year-old Slegers remembers as a sports psychology teacher, said: “I’d always been around teams with that winning mentality.

“It was always about, yes, our responsibility is about being the best as an individual, but actually my responsibility is to help you improve and bring out the best in you, putting a hug around players that come into the league.”

In 2022, Scott’s documentary The Future of Women’s Football raised important questions about diversity in the women’s game.

Asked if progress has been made since, she added: “Until you scream and shout about it, then it’s putting the responsibility on, ‘look, we need to do something.’”

You have to make people responsible

Alex Scott

“Yes, I can continue to scream and shout about it, but actually you have to make people responsible.

“Are they (the Football Association) doing something now? Yes. But we need to measure it.

“What are you doing? Is it going to be good enough? It’s something that we can now measure in the next couple of seasons, to be like, are you giving everyone a fair chance?”