Issue
February 2015 35 articles indexed
Read She Kicks issue 26 in full
Column / Opinion p.3
Jen O'Neill welcomes an issue with a deliberately global focus, featuring both the Asian and African Women's Players of the Year, and argues that in a World Cup year the international game matters more…
News pp.4–8
Germany regain the top of the FIFA world rankings from the United States for the first time in seven years, with France reaching a best-ever third and England sixth. Nadine Kessler and Ralf Kellermann…
Interview pp.10–13
Rachel Brown-Finnis reflects on retiring after some twenty years in the game, describing the reaction as like attending her own funeral and having the eulogy read out. She explains that a group of senior…
Interview pp.14–15
Scotland captain Gemma Fay gives a candid assessment of a third successive play-off failure, a 4-1 aggregate defeat by the Netherlands. There are hidden positives in having gone further than before, she says, but…
Interview pp.16–17
Asisat Oshoala joins WSL champions Liverpool after a phenomenal 2014 in which she won the Golden Boot and Golden Ball at the Under-20 World Cup, the Golden Ball at the African Women's Championship, and…
Interview p.18
Wales forward Natasha Harding answers She Kicks' questions over Twitter as she prepares to leave Bristol Academy for Washington Spirit in the NWSL. Everything about the move excites her, she says: a new challenge,…
Run-of-page feature p.19
The magazine frames a busy two months in the transfer market across England's top two divisions and Scotland, noting a mass exodus from Celtic. Most WSL 1 clubs turned over five or six departures…
Interview p.19
Alex Windell, who has joined Birmingham City from Bristol Academy, says the most exciting part of the move is becoming full time, a new experience for her, and being part of a club that…
Interview p.20
Jen Beattie, who has joined Manchester City from Montpellier, says the club's vision for women's football and its training facilities are second to none, and that she has genuinely never felt this welcome anywhere.…
Interview pp.20–21
Hayley Ladd, who joins Bristol Academy from Coventry City, is excited to return to the WSL after two years in the Premier League, describing Bristol as a consistently strong and competitive outfit. Her route…
Interview p.20
Natalia Pablos Sanchon, moving to Arsenal from Bristol Academy, says the prospect of playing at a great club alongside some of the league's best players is what will make her a better player, and…
Interview p.21
Charlie Estcourt is among the January movers, joining Reading from Chelsea in a transfer window that saw heavy turnover across both WSL divisions. Answering the magazine's questions to each new signing, she says the…
Interview p.22
Niamh Fahey, who has joined Chelsea from Arsenal, says the chance to train every day at the training ground with quality players in strength and depth is what excites her most, and that the…
Interview p.22
Danielle Young explains that her move to Everton came after her Manchester City manager was honest about her future at the club: she contacted the Toffees immediately and within a week the ball was…
News pp.22–23
The complete listing of transfers completed across England, Scotland and abroad in the January 2015 window. Chelsea rebuild with Hedvig Lindahl, Marija Banusic and Niamh Fahey while losing Yuki Ogimi to Wolfsburg. Notts County…
Interview p.23
Hayley Lauder, returning to Glasgow City from Sweden's Vittsjo GIK, says the Champions League quarter-final against Paris Saint-Germain is what everyone is looking forward to and that reaching the last eight is an unbelievable…
Interview p.23
Alex Greenwood says being part of Notts County excites her because every player at the club shares the ambition to improve and compete for trophies, and that football is now her full-time job, something…
Interview pp.24–25
New Sunderland head coach Carlton Fairweather, a former Wimbledon midfielder who spent over a decade developing youth players in the club's academy, prepares for the Lady Black Cats' first WSL 1 season. Football is…
Interview pp.26–27
Coventry City's player of the year Annabel Johnson assesses her club's bid to add the FA Women's Premier League Northern title to the Southern championship they won the previous season. The Northern Division is…
Interview pp.26–27
Leah Ambridge, on course to lead Hampton and Richmond Borough to the Greater London League Division 2 South title in her first season in charge, describes a squad that has accepted an intense new…
Interview pp.27–28
Loughborough Foxes midfielder Shauna Chambers explains how a mid-table Midland Combination side became FA Women's Premier League Midland Division 1 leaders within months. Having started in an under-10 boys' team and played at Watford,…
Interview p.28
Giselle Fields of the National Sports Council describes a third successive Barbados Premier League title, secured on goal difference from debutants University of the West Indies. Her own route into the game began at…
Interview p.29
New Eastbourne Town manager Emma Parslow describes how London and South East League strugglers dumped FA Women's Premier League side Queens Park Rangers out of the FA Women's Cup. The side trained well and…
Interview pp.38–39
Katrina Gorry, known as Mini for her four foot nine frame, reflects on being named AFC Women's Player of the Year for 2014, joining names such as Sun Wen and Aya Miyama on a…
Interview pp.40–41
Kristy Moore, who bowed out this winter after 24 seasons, looks back on a career that took her from Australia's boys' leagues to Barnet, the professional Fulham side, Norway's Toppserien and finally the captaincy…
Interview pp.42–43
England and Arsenal forward Rachel Yankey, awarded an MBE in 2006 and an OBE in 2014, turns to a subject rarely explored in her story: music. In the gym she prefers meaningful words and…
Other pp.44–45
The magazine's recurring slot for young players features two who share a taste for bananas after matches. Ellie Hawcroft, 14, known as El, Skip or the Girl Pele, captains Redfearns JFC boys and South…
Interview p.45
Seventeen-year-old Sarah Chadwick became the youngest player in Preston North End's history to score a first-team hat-trick, in a 6-2 win over Huddersfield. She has been at the club for about nine years, joining…
Interview pp.46–47
Wales international Jess Fishlock, back in Frankfurt preparing for the second half of the German season before heading straight to Seattle for the NWSL campaign, takes the magazine through her matchday. Her pre-match food…
Interview p.47
Notts County's Sophie Walton answers the magazine's recurring kit questionnaire and declares herself the owner of the cleanest boots she knows: dirty boots are a pet hate and she does not feel properly prepared…
Interview p.48
Newcastle United goalkeeper Laura Wareham, who broke her neck in 2011 and suffered a second serious neck injury in November, describes a recovery still without a final diagnosis: she was awaiting MRI results at…
Interview p.49
Glasgow City midfielder Sarah Crilly, whom the magazine notes was once called out of the crowd to play for Scotland in a friendly and scored, takes her turn at the recurring car questionnaire. Her…
Other p.49
The magazine's recurring Twitter slot collects readers' accounts of football injuries and the marks they leave. Two respondents describe carrying the hexagonal print of a ball on the thigh for weeks after blocking a…
News p.50
While eleven-a-side players froze on the sidelines waiting for games, Northamptonshire's female futsal league thrived. Ad hoc indoor sessions began across the county in January 2014 as an alternative to cold outdoor training, helped…
Interview p.51
Sixteen-year-old Charlotte Sparling, known as Lottie, took up refereeing after Lone Millin, lead coach at the Asfordby Amateurs all-inclusive team where she coaches, suggested it in the winter of 2013. She became a mini…
