Rachel Yankey is arguably the most recognisable face in women's football in the UK. She was the first registered professional female footballer in England, was awarded an MBE in 2006 and, at 31, is the most capped player in the England squad – 109 caps and counting. What's it like being the poster girl for women's football? "It feels like the norm," she laughs. "People have been making comments about me since I was a kid. At the time there were maybe one or two other black players and I was quick and an attacking player. I'm used to it now. I think when I finish playing, I'll sit back and look at it all and recognise all that I've achieved."
It's not too shabby for a girl who adored former Arsenal and England player Ian Wright and started playing football in the park with her older brother and "the boys across the road". She marvels at how much the game has grown. "More girls are playing; we have centres of excellence where you can access great coaching. When I was a kid you went straight into playing women's football – I played in the seniors before I played in the U-18 team." She's especially excited by what this grassroots improvement will produce. "I think the next batch of players coming through in five, 10 years will have the best opportunity to make women's football amazing. They're now getting what the boys have had for so many years, and I hope they fully grasp that opportunity and make women's football even better."
Coaching is what dominates Yankey's time when she's not on the pitch. Following the dissolution of her then-club, Fulham LFC, in 2004, she set up a business delivering PE sessions and after-school clubs to primary schools in Brent, north-west London. She also co-runs a community youth team, the Gibbons Wreckers: "The children named the team. It's pretty cool, right?"
As the game becomes more popular, it brings pressure and expectation on younger players. Yankey's advice is for girls to just enjoy it. "There has to be balance – we've got to make sure it's fun and people play because they love it." Just like in the movie Bend It Like Beckham? "I was in that!" she says. "We're the team in the black kit – the bad actors," she laughs.
She's glad of the airtime her game is finally getting but says "it could still be bigger". What she hates is lazy comparisons. "You can't judge it on the men's game – they're decades ahead of us on this. But there's nothing to suggest we won't eventually go the way of the men's game in terms of sponsorships."
How many professional footballers have a first-class law degree? A preliminary internet search suggests just one – England's Eniola Aluko. How does that work, then? "They're my passions," she answers. "I was put on this earth to play football and for as long as I can remember, I've wanted to be a lawyer."
Aluko, 24, is a proper star. She was named Young Player of the Year at the Women's FA Awards in 2003 and her prolific goalscoring led Marcus Bignot, former manager at Birmingham City Ladies, to call her "the Wayne Rooney of women's football". Since making her senior debut at 17, she has gone on to score 11 goals and win 55 caps. Was it daunting to be playing so young? "It was tough, very nerve-racking," she admits. "But, you know, I was there because I deserved to be and I played well. Once you play well, you just have to keep doing what you're doing – don't think about it too much."
Football was, she says, a form of expression for her and her younger brother Sone, who plays for Aberdeen FC and Nigeria. "Football was always in my family in many ways – my dad played and we watched and played a lot." But she wishes she'd had female role models to look up to as a youngster. "I didn't really have any women that I could point at and say: 'I want to be like that.' It was just something I knew I wanted to do."
Aluko cut her teeth at Birmingham, Charlton Athletic and Chelsea before moving to the US for the past few seasons. She now plays for Sky Blue FC in New Jersey, in a league she considers the best in the world. "Week in, week out, I'm being challenged," she says. "It's probably one of the best decisions for my football career that I've made. It's really brought my game to a higher level." The relative invisibility of the game in the UK irks her, and she thinks media exposure is key, something we could learn from the Germans. "You can tell by the way Germany has approached this World Cup that they have gone all out and really put it in the face of the public, and now 80,000 people are coming to the opening game. I think that's the way it needs to be done – spend the money. The women's game is not on TV enough."
But back to that law degree; what are her plans? "I eventually want to build up a sports entertainment law practice and carve a bit of a niche for myself, in terms of being one of the first female lawyers who also played the sport. I think there's something quite fun about that."