Close - Ella Toone

Chapter 1

I remember when I was younger going to my Grandmother's house every month. We only got to visit her about once a month as she lived about an hour away.   

My Nanna was originally from the Netherlands and she loved to watch football. She would always take me and my sibling to the football fields down the street from her house and we'd just sit and watch the others play and try and join in if they'd let us.

That is where I found my love for the game, at those fields. 

Then she brought me my very own football, and my parents signed me up to play for my local team. 

As I continued to get older, football became my everything. I was always a very sporty kid, playing Netball as well, but it would never come even close to my love of football.

At 12, there was only 1 player who was better than me and it always frustrated me. You don't understand how much I hated her. She never really gave me a reason to hate her looking back on it but all I know is that I did.

I HATED ELLA TOONE.

She always drove me crazy, maybe it was because she was better than me, and I wanted to be the best. I couldn't beat her no matter how hard I tried to. What I do know is that this resentment was the main thing making work even harder, but every time I played her it looked like she was also trying harder every time.

After every match against her, I just went home and complained to my mom how much I hated her, but every time my mom would reply, "You don't 'hate' her, Madison. You're just jealous of her."

So I'd go and complain to my dad instead, and he would say the same thing.

Soon enough she joined my team, and every day my mom would tell me in Dutch "Give her a chance. She might be a very nice girl. You two might work well together!" and every time I just replied by rolling my eyes. 

I spoke fluent Dutch because my mom and Nanna both were born in the Netherlands. Whereas my dad's side of the family was born here in Manchester.

The only positive of speaking Dutch is that Ella Toone did not understand a single ounce of Dutch to save her life, so I could say whatever I wanted to her in Dutch and she would never know what I was saying. I could tell her how much I hated her while having a fake smile on my face and she'd think I was complimenting her or something.

All I ever cared about was how much I wanted to play for the Lionesses and play professionally and I wanted to do it better and quicker than her. 

But that didn't get to happen because she was playing for the Senior Lionesses at the age of 21. I've played for U23's for the last 2 years and now I'm 22. I wish they would call me up to the seniors, I've pretty much been getting hattricks in every game.

I just beg to be called up for the national team.