“It was by no means concerning the cash after I joined Arsenal,” says Steph Houghton. “Now I look again at these figures and I believe ‘oh my god’.”
In 2012, Houghton was the most effective feminine centre-backs in England – for which she was paid £4,000 a 12 months by Arsenal, probably the most profitable ladies’s group within the nation at the moment.
Bonuses and additional work as a component‑time coach and membership ambassador lifted that determine to £9,000.
“I used to be dwelling in London, though I used to be lucky that the membership paid for the residence,” Houghton, who received 121 caps for England and captained her nation from 2014 to 2021, instructed BBC Radio 5 Reside Breakfast.
“On the similar time, to reside off that and attempt to save for a home, easy issues all of us do as human beings, it was fairly powerful to do.”
Houghton, who retired from taking part in on the finish of final season, is credited with serving to to vary the course {of professional} soccer for girls.
In her autobiography Main From The Again, the three-time Ladies’s Tremendous League winner particulars the struggles she endured as she fought for higher pay.
At the moment, a few of the easiest gamers within the WSL are reported to earn hundreds of thousands of pounds, external a 12 months.
It was a unique story 12 years in the past.
“I got here from the north-east. My mum and pa didn’t have a lot cash and I am from a working class household,” Houghton instructed BBC Radio 4’s Lady’s Hour on Friday.
“I got here from a pit village [South Hetton], so for me cash was by no means actually a driving issue.
“However I had the chance to maneuver to Arsenal. I needed to go there and win trophies, I needed to ascertain myself within the England set-up and play with the perfect gamers.”
Houghton, who joined Arsenal in 2010, turned more and more decided to face up for herself.
“To be getting into there on my own to talk about one thing was powerful as a result of the man that I used to be talking to, Vic Akers, who’s an absolute legend within the ladies’s sport, to have that dialog with somebody who has introduced you to the membership was powerful,” she provides.
“It was scary and it was daunting. I’d have been solely 22, 23 then, so fairly younger when it comes to not that a lot expertise.
“However I needed to get up for myself.”
Houghton went on to change into the primary feminine participant to look on the quilt of Shoot journal, was made an MBE and acquired the Freedom of the Metropolis in Sunderland.
She additionally led England throughout a big interval of progress for girls’s soccer, managing elevated scrutiny, expectation and media consideration, in addition to guiding the following era.
