Official Kicks: Honor Cantrell

Honor Cantrell, a seventeen-year-old student at George Spencer Academy in Nottingham, describes swapping playing for refereeing. Football had been her whole life: four years at Derby County’s Centre of Excellence, including a tour of America, and an England appearance in 2012. She decided she no longer wanted to play but would not leave the game, choosing between coaching and officiating, and took her referee qualification the week after her fourteenth birthday. Naturally bossy, she enjoys being in charge and finds football becomes a different game once you officiate. She acted as assistant to Mark Clattenburg at a Stockport County charity event and remains in touch with him, and rates the Soccerex Festival as her highest-profile fixture. Her ultimate goal is to reach the top.