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Jill Scott has retired from football at the age of 35 after an extraordinary career which, fittingly, ended with her being part of the England team that won Euro 2022. I had the privilege of playing with her many times for our country and also at Aston Villa last season, and I can tell you she is truly one of a kind.
You don’t get to play 161 times for your country if you are not a special player so let’s start with Jill on the pitch. The No 1 thing that made her so good was her engine – she had the qualities of a traditional box-to-box midfielder. She covered distance and could almost do that without breaking sweat, and you’d be thinking: “What is wrong with this girl?” When you are up against her you are just like: “Could you just stand still for a moment because I don’t have the legs for this.”
Her reading of the game was also superb, especially in an attacking sense and especially in those early years when she had the licence to go forward. She was the player we relied on to make those third-player runs, to create those overloads and problems for opponents.
She was an aerial threat as well and such an intelligent player. She continued to evolve at Manchester City, including her ability to get between the lines, to find forward passes, to put her team in positive positions in attack.
She loved a passing drill. In fact she was obsessed by them. She probably has about a thousand catalogued in her head. After training sessions she’d always be willing to stay for 15-20 minutes with the young players, and even the senior players went: “What passing drill are you doing today? I want to join in.”
Jill was the kind of player who tested me, and others, because she was so dedicated to being better. At times we both played in the same midfield position but she would always do extra to give herself the edge and that is why she has had such a long career.
Off the pitch? Well, that is a completely different matter. She was so focused on the pitch but off it she could drive you mad – in a good way. With national teams it is often quite regimented: there are places to be on time, you have got to have your kit and so on. But I will guarantee that by the end of a trip Jill wouldn’t even know where three-quarters of her belongings were. They would be dotted around several teammates’ bedrooms, and she’d go around asking whether anyone had seen her phone or socks or whatever.
And last year she got an electric car. The problem with that was that she is probably one of the most spontaneous people on the planet and not much of a planner. But with an electric car you need to be prepared and know where to charge it if you are going to get where you need to get. Let’s say that didn’t happen all the time with Jill. She’d forget where she needed to be the next day, suddenly going, “Oh I need to charge my car” and disappear for two or three hours.
Most importantly, though, she has an incredible personality. Every person who comes into contact with her is likely to leave with a smile, their cheeks hurting from laughter.
She is such a down-to-earth, humble, honest person. And she really enjoys looking after others and making them feel good. She would always lighten the mood. It could have been a really important tournament or camp but she had this quality to bring such positive energy. For us she was a comedian, a bit of a joker, in a good way. She didn’t mind being front and centre and being silly off the pitch.
She had a social and emotional intelligence to understand people, how to interact with all of us and she had a unique way of bringing everyone together. She could connect with anyone in a team, no matter the age, background or whatever clubs we were playing for. She was that bridge, if you like, that glue that bonded the group. She is a very, very thoughtful person.
What else? She loves coming up with rhymes. She is a bit of a rhyme master – it is her version of poetry, often related to football. She did a lot of that at Villa. She would come in and say: ‘Guys, guys, listen to this.’ Were they any good? To be fair she might have something there. She is good with words, knows how to make everyone laugh and is very creative.
But the thing that stood out was her dancing. We named her Crouchy after Peter Crouch and she did that robot dance and had a few other moves that I don’t even know how to describe! She always managed to get us in hysterics.
It is hard to put into words but you just knew from being around her that she was a good person. Some people have that pulling power. People want to be around her, to engage with her.
I am sure she will be involved in coaching because of her wealth of knowledge and inner drive to help push younger players. She has had that throughout her career and I can’t see it stopping.
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