ALEX SCOTT

I love music - in my playing days, I was always the team DJ.

You have to listen to the anthems, allow the emotion to come, but then need to snap back into the match and your specific task.

Even when I play in World Cups, I don't look at things like that. It's something that I want to be doing, so why would I put extra pressure on myself? I'm just going to go out there and enjoy it.

When I was younger, my food and fitness were less controlled - I just loved football.

All I know is two wrongs do not make a right. And nobody's perfect; ain't nobody right all the time.

When I finished playing, I didn't think I would be able to replace the buzz you feel at kick-off, but when the light on top of the camera turns red, and you're about to go live to the nation, it is a very similar feeling.

Putting the need of your team above personal self-interest is a difficult thing to do.

Sure, I do feel I am an ambassador for women's football. But that hasn't changed. It's been like that since I started at eight years old. I'm still me.

When things don't happen in my life, I believe that I've been pushed into another path for a reason, and there's a bigger picture.

If my dog Ella, named after the Rihanna song 'Umbrella', could be with me at all times, that would make me happy.

While I was playing football in the U.S., I learnt to play the guitar, and I'm picking it up again now.

I don't want to be regarded as a female pundit. I'm a pundit.

My dad left home when I was super young, so it was my mum bringing me and my brother up.

When I was going off to training and matches at Arsenal, my mum wouldn't be on the side cheering me on: she'd be working so I'd have football boots. I saw that you had to work hard if you wanted to do anything in life.

The enjoyment of playing football gave me a positive pathway, but I could have taken a very different path.

I knew that, to be the best right-back in the world, I had to improve my fitness so I could run up and down constantly for 90 minutes.

I don't like to make comparisons between former managers because they all bring a unique style.

Football is for everyone, no matter what background you're from, what age, what level you play at. This is what it's all about: coming out today, having a good time, and getting involved.

To walk out at Wembley in an England shirt is a big deal for a girl who remembers playing in her local football cage down the park in Poplar with the boys.

I have played in matches where individuals have frozen and gone into their shells: they don't want the ball, they don't communicate, and they don't do their jobs. Fear turns them to stone.

I'm that girl - I've never been camping; I don't even go to festivals because I hate the cold and the rain. If it starts to rain, I'm the first one on the training field to go in and get a hat!

In the 2007 World Cup, Kelly Smith went to another level, scoring twice against Japan and dragging the team forward with an infectious enthusiasm. She changed the dynamic, and we all followed her lead.

I've always been a strong presence on social media. That's how I've connected with my fans, and in doing that, I'm allowing them to win.

I don't get wrapped up in the politics of going down to win a penalty or getting an opponent sent off.

My mum never once tried to push me into something different, even though there was no way of making a living out of women's football. She supported me because she saw I was happy and that it gave me a focus to not be hanging around on the street.