It feels like we’ve seen more of Steph Houghton since she’s retired. Not literally — although maybe rival fans who would watch her twice a season for Manchester City genuinely have seen more of her in her new, burgeoning media career — but in a deeper, more human sense. Houghton’s interactions with the media were always cordial and insightful, but as with many players you got the sense there was more under the surface.
Advertisement In recent months, Houghton has emerged from her shell to become a more candid, forthright voice. Consequently, it’s easier to glimpse the leader who not only represented Manchester City and England with distinction but transformed the women’s game along the way. Even more so in her memoir, Leading From The Back: My Journey to the Top of Women’s Football, out this week.
In it, Houghton lays bare her role as off-field leader, chiefly in her negotiations with the Football Association over contracts and bonuses. Houghton’s England teams had it better than their predecessors but did not have the luxury, for instance, of direct or business class flights home from the World Cup in Canada in 2015, where they won bronze. They played in the Women’s Super League (WSL) four days later.
The most moving chapters are on Houghton’s husband, the former footballer Stephen Darby, and his 2018 motor neurone disease diagnosis: of plans derailed and a player forced to choose between family and football. GO DEEPER Inspiration, tears and 'Scholesy's.
