Jackie Groenen interview: Jackie Of All Trades

Tony Leighton meets Jackie Groenen, a 19-year-old born in Holland, brought up in Belgium, a former junior judo international, a hit in German football alongside her sister and now impressing for Chelsea while studying law at a Dutch university. Groenen explains that her parents are Dutch but she has lived all her life in Belgium, two minutes’ walk from the border, and made a cultural decision to play senior football for Belgium, only to receive a letter from FIFA saying she is not allowed to, a matter now with the Belgian FA. She left Duisburg because of the club’s financial troubles, choosing England for the language and family in Royal Tunbridge Wells. She finds the WSL more intense and faster if less technical, gave up judo at 17 after breaking her hip, and calls Eniola Aluko her mentor.