A lot has changed in women’s football since I was preparing to play in my first World Cup, in 2007. In fact I can’t believe it has been 16 years since I played in China but it was the first time we started to see some change occurring. Two years earlier I had played at Euro 2005 in England where there was very little interest from the media and, in terms of attendance, relatively few spectators.
For China 2007, however, we had our own chef travelling with us for the first time, ensuring we were supported nutritionally, and we stayed at unbelievable hotels, with really amazing facilities. To me at that time it felt like real progress for us as a national team. Remarkably, half of us flew in economy and half of us in business. Then we swapped for the return flight.
