A Sense of Hope / A Decade of Hope

A career interview with the woman appointed England head coach in 1998 at 31, the first female, first full-time, first black and youngest manager of any England side, combining a new anniversary interview by Catherine Etoe with an archive 2008 piece by Tony Leighton. Powell recounts knowing very young that she would play for England, taking her first coaching qualification at 17, and assuming the FA meeting was about the youth squad. She says her fear was not of being first but of failing, and describes visiting the United States, Norway and Sweden to gather evidence for the resources she spent fifteen years requesting. She recalls fielding Katie Chapman and Rachel Unitt for an 8-0 hammering in Norway as a necessary transition, and rates Kelly Smith by far the best player she worked with.