Manchester United and Lioness midfielder Ella Toone has opened up on her thoughts about being so far away from home during what will be her first Women’s World Cup. The 23-year-old was coined a super-sub throughout the Euros tournament and now heads onto the biggest stage of international football as a household name and a starter for England’s Lionesses.
Her Euro final lob added to by Chloe Kelly's nudge home granted the nation their first piece of silverware since 1966 and since then have been unstoppable. Sarina Wiegman's squad have brought home the Arnold Clark Cup and the first ever women's Finalissima accolade added to the trophy cabinet, but now all eyes are on World Cup glory.
Toone said: “Everyone wants to play in the World Cup, it's the biggest tournament you can ever play in, especially for your country. We’ve played in the Euros which was unbelievable but now we’re stepping up and hopefully, we can go on and achieve great things out there."
Before the squad can take the 23-hour flight, England face one more challenge, Portugal on Saturday, July 1. It will be the first game since their first loss under Wiewgman (in a friendly against Australia in April, 2-0).
Toone said: “It's always good to have those games before going out into a tournament to see where we’re at and what things we need to work on.
“To get back on the pitch with each other and get those connections building back up. And it's a different test to what we’re going to face so it's always nice to step out on the pitch and play a couple of games before we go out to the World Cup.”
What about downtime? England’s first match is July 22 against Haiti, their second comes six days later versus Denmark. Four days later comes the final group game against China on the first of August.
While Australia and New Zealand, apparently, offer incredible coffee, Toone is not an aficionado like teammates Mary Earps and Ellie Roebuck. “I don't drink coffee but I do go for the bants,” said Toone.
“I don't know what I'm looking forward to, just maybe seeing a different country. I've never been to Australia before so it will be nice to actually see a different part of the world and I think when we have time off as well, away from football it's always nice to spend time with friends and chill together playing board games - I like doing that. And card games and stuff like that.”
Will you be entertaining us with your TikTok? “Probably not,” she said half laughing, “It depends if Mary [Earps] makes me do some TikToks with her. She will probably make me do something,” Toone added, rolling her eyes and smiling.
Fans unable to make the trip are just as important to Toone and the squad on the other side of the world, and while social media content may take a hit, Toone said support for the team is everything: “It’s understanding that people will have down days being so far away from home and you can't always talk to the family and stuff but I think it's going to be huge. I've got family coming out which will be really nice but the support from back home will be massive - we all can’t wait.”
