Jill Scott has arguably gained a bigger profile since retiring from the game in 2022.
Her foul-mouthed rant at German opposition player Sydney Lohmann in the Euros final in 2022 became one of the most iconic clips from the tournament and raised her profile with the moment going viral.
She retired after winning the trophy and now is a regular pundit and guest on the Overlap’s ‘Stick to Football’ podcast. Scott is one of the most recognisable faces from the English women’s game in the past decade. But before she was winning I’m a Celebrity or discussing the big issues with Gary Neville, Ian Wright and Roy Keane – who was Jill Scott the player? Let’s take a look…
Jill Scott: Her career so far
Jill Scott began her career with local club Sunderland, although she very nearly choose a different sport as a junior.
Scott was a middle to long distance runner in her formative years, running for Sunderland Harries and winning both the North of England Under-13 cross-country title and the Junior Great North Run.
Thankfully, Scott would eventually choose to pursue football, signing for Sunderland and making her debut aged 17 after previously completing a foundation degree in sports and exercise development at the city’s university.
Standing out early on in her career as a potential England player, Scott moved to Everton in 2006, leaving home in a big to push her career onto the next level. Regularly deployed as a deep-midfielder earlier in her career, few could match Scott’s ability to run box-to-box and cover every blade of grass.
She would go onto make over a century of league appearances on Merseyside, across a seven-year period, winning both the Women’s Premier League Cup and the Women’s FA Cup.
In 2013, she would call time on her spell at Everton, with the newly-formed Manchester City women’s side winning the race for her signature. Over the next six years, Scott would win every domestic trophy available, including a WSL and Conti Cup double in 2016.
Something of a City legend, she would also score in the 2017 FA Cup final win over Birmingham at Wembley.
By this point Scott was firmly an England regular, having won her first cap back in 2006, with her first major tournament the 2007 World Cup in China.
The midfielder would play at four World Cups in total across a glittering international career, winning 161 caps in the process.
Her midfield teammate for so many of those games, Fara Williams, is the only player to win more caps in England history.
The crowning moment for Scott would come at the home European Championships, which would prove the final chapter of her career.
Although by this stage she was mainly used as a substitute by Sarina Wiegman, particularly useful when England needed to see out a game, Scott still played a vital role.
Coming on in the final against Germany, she not only produced the viral moment from the game for her outburst at Lohmann – but also helped England see out extra-time with relative comfort.
Retiring from the professional game only a few weeks after the Euros, Scott is a regular television pundit, covering both the men’s and women’s game.
