Great Britain footballer Steph Houghton has paid tribute to her family after earning her 100th international cap for England.
The captain, who stands as Great Britain’s all-time leading scorer with three goals at the London 2012 Olympic Games, became only the 11th player in England’s history to make a century of caps when she featured in the 2-0 loss to Sweden.
Despite the result, the milestone marked a momentous occasion in the career of a player who was named in the Olympic team of the tournament six years ago.
And the 30-year-old thanked her family for their support in enabling her to join the likes of Alex Scott, Fara Williams and Casey Stoney in the Lionesses 100 club, first entering the international scene against Russia in 2007.
“As a professional footballer you have a lot of sacrifices and my biggest sacrifice has been being away from my family and spending my time away from home,” she said.
“But I think to see them up in the stands, and it’s not just your 100th game, it’s every little game when there has hardly been any fans there, they have always been there. That one’s for them.
“My career so far is everything down to my mum, my dad, my brother, my grandma who comes down to every single game, but also my husband as well.
“Sunday was a bit of an emotional night, I had a lot of video messages from the likes of Faye White, Casey Stoney, Rachel Yankey, Rachel Brown, who were the experienced players when I first joined the squad.
“They are absolute legends in women’s football and people that I look up to and really admire and wanted to emulate.
“When I first joined England they were the ones to put an arm around me and tell me off when I wasn’t doing so good.
“To have those messages from those types of people was a real honour and a really proud moment to see them with the rest of the squad.”
Houghton is one of many England players that could feature for Team GB at Tokyo 2020 with the side eager to earn redemption after being knocked out at the quarter-final stage six years ago.
Houghton played a central role in the side that overcame New Zealand, Cameroon and Brazil in the group stages without conceding a goal, and her England manager Phil Neville has backed his captain to go on to excel on the international stage for many
years to come.
He said: “Steph's not bothered about her 100th cap – she wanted just to play the game.
“Her overriding emotions will be that she wanted to win the game of football, because she is going to go on to play another 50, 60, 70 caps.
“You always want to celebrate something as special as today with a victory, but it wasn't to be.
“I still think it's a fantastic achievement. It doesn't take anything away from her achievement at all.”
Sportsbeat 2018