Hayley Raso does not want to be heard. Or really, overheard. It is nothing against her new Tottenham Hotspur team-mates.
“I don’t need people to hear me or listen to me and things like that,” the 30-year-old midfielder says with a sheepish laugh. So Raso, in full white home strip and bouncy brunette ponytail, is on the move, navigating the labyrinth of Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
It is early November and Raso’s first time inside her new club’s main stadium. As the Australia international passes the home team’s dressing room — a brightly-lit semi-shrine displaying the men’s team’s shirt for the various stadium tours scuttling about — she stops to snap a photo. An offer arrives for her own photograph to be taken in front of it, which Raso swiftly declines with another bashful laugh before embarking on her journey again. Finally, a cluttered but human-free office is unearthed.
Raso pulls up a chair for The Athletic before settling into another, allowing herself a gentle swivel and a deep breath.
The episode is a brief but enlightening window into Raso, whom Spurs signed on a two-year deal in the summer. The midfielder has won silverware in the National Women’s Super League (NWSL) with the Portland Thorns and lifted the League Cup with Manchester City in 2021. In…
