"I think it's still mad and it always will be that people are recognising me when I'm walking down the street," says Ella Toone, the Manchester United forward who set England on their way to glory in this summer's European Championships.
Toone came into the Euro 2022 tournament on the back of a fine individual season for Manchester United Women, earning her an England squad place for a home Euros. While she wasn't an automatic starter for Sarina Wiegman's side, she came off the bench in each game and scored a decisive equaliser in the semi-final win over Spain to force extra time.
Her most memorable moment, though, came in the final, with England locked in a stalemate with Germany. When former Manchester City midfielder Keira Walsh sent a sublime ball forward, Toone timed her run perfectly, kept calm, and sent a sensational chip over the advancing goalkeeper and into the far corner.
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Toone's cool head sent Wembley into delirium, and despite a German equaliser, City forward Chloe Kelly got the all-important winner that sealed the Lionesses the crown of European Champions. And the Tyldesley local says while the squad hoped the tournament could change perceptions of women's football, she wasn't prepared for just how much her life would change - even when she is just going about her daily life.
She said: "We knew it was always going to change but I don't think we knew how much it was going to change. So obviously just adapting to that and getting used to it. But that's part and parcel of football and it's obviously nice that more people recognise us now when you can't walk down the street without someone shouting 'Tooney'.
"But yeah, it's nice and I'm getting used to it. I think it's still mad and it always will be that people are recognising me when I'm walking down the street. I'm just a girl who's playing football and it's very different to life before but definitely like that we're getting the recognition that women's football deserved."
From the moment England won the Euros, the squad set about trying to build on their capacity crowds and record viewing figures for women's football. The squad recently welcomed Prime Minister Liz Truss to their training camp as they continue to fight for young girls to have access to playing football and the following opportunities that come with it.
"You can see the character in the squad as soon as we won the Euros," she said. "It was 'what can we do next? What's the next step?' And obviously, it was to have equal opportunity for girls and let them have a chance to play football in schools. And that just shows the character that we have. That this is just the start of our journey. And we'll build on the success of the summer to use our platforms going forward.
"I'm really proud, obviously, for a lot of us growing up we didn't have those female role models to look up to and now we are those role models. It's mad but that's what we love. We want to keep inspiring the next generation and getting as many girls involved in sport as we can. For me, it's really proud and something that I'm really trying to take in my stride and just try and be the perfect role model can be for the young girls looking up."
Toone continues to progress with England, with the Lionesses beating World Champions USA at Wembley last week, and she's looking to help United break the Women's Super League 'top three' domination of City, Chelsea and Arsenal.
"I mean, that's what we're hoping for," she says. "We've obviously signed a lot of great talent in the summer and we've got a lot of depth in the squad now. And we're hungrier than ever to go on and push for the Champions League spaces and I think any team in the league can beat any team. So I think this year is going to be really competitive.
"We knew that would happen [attracting more fans in domestic games] after the success of the summer and I think the main things was for us was to get as many people in the crowd as we can and since the start of the WSL season. You've seen that the growth in the crowd numbers have been massive and it's really exciting. And hopefully we can keep on growing that and keep on trying to have the same opportunities for everyone."
And for a childhood United fan, Toone says opening England's Euros campaign at Old Trafford, where United Women have now played twice and have another fixture coming up, was a special moment this summer.
She said: "It was amazing obviously amazing for me being a Man United fan and growing up supporting the club and we know what an amazing stadium Old Trafford is so to kick off our Euro campaign there was very special and to have as many people as we did in the crowd was really nice to show the support that we have.
"They're always amazing games [at Old Trafford]. We can get as many people as we can in the crowd. But I think for us, we know our home is Leigh Sports Village and we want to make that a fortress and we want to sell that out and obviously you look forward to those games that sort of big stadiums."
Toone was speaking at the opening of a new all-weather pitch in Moss Side through a collaboration with Nike, JD and Football Beyond Borders.
