Quotes from Alex Scott

The enjoyment of playing football gave me a positive pathway, but I could have taken a very different path.

Being a footballer was about analysing performance, never being satisfied, seeing what lessons you can learn and who you can learn from.

I was fortunate enough to play in a number of finals, and I can still remember waking with butterflies in my stomach. It is at moments like those you realise why you fell in love with football in the first place.

To walk out at Wembley in an England shirt is a big deal for a girl who remembers playing in her local football cage down the park in Poplar with the boys.

My dad left home when I was super young, so it was my mum bringing me and my brother up.

While I was playing football in the U.S., I learnt to play the guitar, and I'm picking it up again now.

Sure, I do feel I am an ambassador for women's football. But that hasn't changed. It's been like that since I started at eight years old. I'm still me.

When I was going off to training and matches at Arsenal, my mum wouldn't be on the side cheering me on: she'd be working so I'd have football boots. I saw that you had to work hard if you wanted to do anything in life.

My mum never once tried to push me into something different, even though there was no way of making a living out of women's football. She supported me because she saw I was happy and that it gave me a focus to not be hanging around on the street.

I may not have played men's football, but I've been at World Cups as a player. I know the emotions. I've been in quarter finals, a semi-final. I'd been substituted and sat on the bench watching us lose a penalty shoot-out. I know what happens, what you need when the pressure's on.

Being away with a national side at a tournament can be hard - you train, go back to your hotel, and often, you sit in your room, watching TV or speaking to people at home. If there's no communal area, it can feel like being in prison, staring at the same four walls all the time.

I know what I do, I know I can play football, and I know I can talk about it.

I'm just happy I get paid to train every day and play football. I can't ask more than that.

Women are the same. We watch football; we play football. Why wouldn't we be out there giving our opinions on the sport ,too?

I played in three World Cups, and I would say that it was the last one that I enjoyed the most.

My body shape has transformed as sports science research has developed. It used to be thought that footballers needed to be big and do lots of weights and little cardio.

I've adopted that mentality: every day I do weights and core in the gym in the morning and train on the field in the afternoon. And I'm strict with my diet - I include protein in every meal and snack.

You have to listen to the anthems, allow the emotion to come, but then need to snap back into the match and your specific task.

I love music - in my playing days, I was always the team DJ.

Putting the need of your team above personal self-interest is a difficult thing to do.

Not everyone agrees. If you disagree with me, I want you to tell me, and I'm going to come back and tell you why it's my opinion.

Even when I play in World Cups, I don't look at things like that. It's something that I want to be doing, so why would I put extra pressure on myself? I'm just going to go out there and enjoy it.

Football made me want to train and stay disciplined. It kept me away from things like drugs. Young people are faced with the temptation to stray all the time.

When things don't happen in my life, I believe that I've been pushed into another path for a reason, and there's a bigger picture.