Marianne Spacey-Cale is widely considered one of the greatest women’s footballers of all time.
She played 91 times for England, was part of the squad who went to their first FIFA Women’s World Cup in 1995 in Sweden, and played for Arsenal between 1993 and 2002, winning five league titles and seven FA Cups.
Now she is the manager of Southampton Women, who sit third in the Women’s Super League (WSL) table, having joined the club in 2018 and overseen their climb from the fifth tier of women’s football.
Tonight her team will take on her former club Arsenal at St Mary’s Stadium in the league cup, the first time the two teams have met, in a game for which over 12,500 tickets have already been sold.
She is a player who has appeared on some of the biggest domestic and international stages, but now she must motivate a team that includes players not born at the height of her playing career.
Rachel Yankey (left) Marieanne Spacey-Cale (middle) and Ciara Grant with the FA Premier League trophy in 1999 (Photo: Ross Kinnaird/Allsport)
“Yes, I’ve been in big games, but this is a different group of people, a different era and generation,” she says. “How can I use my experience? Part and parcel of playing football is that there is pressure.”
She explains her…
