She Kicks a Beat: Erin Unplugged (Erin Nayler, Reading)

New Zealand’s goalkeeper honoured her Bordeaux contract before joining Reading in August, and arrived in temporary accommodation with no television – so she bought a guitar off Facebook Marketplace and started teaching herself the intro to Californication. The Football Ferns, she explains, are a squad with a distinct musical streak, born of spending more time in transit than almost any other international side: at the Rio Olympics they formed a ukulele band, Wilky and the Uku-Ladies, after Hannah Wilkinson taught everyone the basic chords. Nayler’s own initiation with the senior squad was an ill-advised attempt at Adele’s Set Fire to the Rain, which she still describes as scarring. She saved an Abby Wambach penalty in her eighth cap, and is studying for a health diploma alongside football.