England midfielder Jill Scott has been congratulated by Prince William after she announced her retirement this afternoon.
The Duke of Cambridge hailed the 35-year-old, from Sunderland, as "a pioneer of Women's football and a great team player" before joking that he would not miss her "slide tackles". He added that it had been a pleasure to get to know Scott and congratulated her on her career.
Scott earned 161 senior international caps after making her England debut in 2006 and scored 27 goals for the national side. She announced her retirement today in a post on Twitter and an article on The Players' Tribune.
Read more: Jill Scott retires from football following Women's Euros win
Following Scott's announcement William, president of the FA, wrote in a personal tweet: "A pioneer of Women’s football and a great team player.
"@JillScottJS8 congratulations on a wonderful career, it's been a pleasure to get to know you.
"Tiny bit pleased there won’t be any more slide tackles during ‘friendly’ kickabouts… W".
Scott's decision to hang up her boots comes just over three weeks since helping the Lionesses to Euro 2022 glory. She had been without a club after leaving Manchester City at the end of last season.
Scott tweeted about her decision: "Right, we're not crying. I promised myself. I'm retiring from football. And I'm leaving with a gold medal swinging from my neck."
William cheered the Lionesses on and presented them with their medals after their historic 2-1 win over Germany in the final at Wembley last month. Scott has previously spoken of how she slide tackled and "wiped out" the future king during a charity event.
"It does stem back to about 10 years ago when we did a charity event and I slipped and slide-tackled him and actually wiped him out," she said on her BBC podcast Jill Scott’s Coffee Club.
"The running joke whenever he's seen us was like 'No yellow cards this tournament Jill'."
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