New Ambitions: Jill Roord One on One

The experienced midfielder is back in England after leaving Wolfsburg, getting used to not having European football to contend with, and contemplating her prime years

Were you pleased to return to the Women’s Super League in the summer? Yeah, definitely. When City came in for me I got really excited. First of all, I loved how City play and it suits me very well, but a lot has happened during the years I was in Germany. England have been very successful and WSL is very competitive. I was excited to go back.

Had you hoped for a second spell in England? It wasn’t like I was looking to go but they came in and I was open and had a lot of thought about it and believed it could be the right step for me. The League and competitiveness in England has grown massively, there are so many good teams and you have to fight to get a Champions League spot. You don’t see that in many other leagues.

You’re not in Europe at City this season. Is qualifying for the Champions League the absolute priority in the second half of the campaign? That’s the one thing we have to do and we desperately want to achieve it. Since I’ve been a professional, I’ve always played in the Champions League so I know what it’s like, it’s something special and as a player these are the games you dream of. With the club and the team and all the qualities we have, that is the main goal.

Is it a strange feeling to not have European football when you’re so used to it? Yeah, but on the other hand, it’s okay. The focus is on the domestic league and cups but I know when you are in Europe and you go far, like we did at Wolfsburg last season, it’s difficult to be successful in all the competitions and that’s something we don’t have so we focus on the league. We would have all loved to have played Champions League but that’s the positive to have come out of not being in it and we focus on playing in the Champions League next year.

What lessons did you feel you learned from last term with Wolfsburg? It is really difficult to compete in everything. We made it to the Champions League final but at the same time I think that cost us the league because we had so many games and it’s so hard to focus on and give 100 per cent in every game.

Is there a clear reason why English teams have not been as successful in Europe as German or French clubs? 

I find it difficult to say. Women’s football has grown a lot these last few years and before that it was always Lyon, Wolfsburg, Barcelona… the other teams were a bit behind. Now it’s really getting to a level where there are many teams who are very good, very successful, so it’s coming up. 

Do you feel like a senior player now, despite being just 26? I do. Especially with the national team. I’ve been there for ten years now and I’ve always been at the tournaments so I’m not the oldest but not the youngest anymore. I like this role, to take a bit more responsibility now. 

Do the young players at City come and speak to you for advice? If they want to ask something, they can always come to me. I think they know that but we have several experienced players here so they can learn from many others.

With so much experience behind you, are these your prime years now do you think? I’m getting older! Physically I feel very good right now and they say these are the good years, I hope so.

Your Mum was a basketball player. Did you have a choice between that and football? If I hadn’t played football, I’d probably have played basketball. My Mum played it and I really like the sport. To be honest, I really come from a football family, my Dad, my brothers, and really I was obsessed with football. It was all I wanted to do. My brothers were pretty good but not as obsessed with it as me.

What remaining goals do you have in the game now? I would love to win that with the Netherlands, I think we have a really good squad, a pretty young squad, so who knows in this summer and the next few years.

In England, Sarina Wiegman has been a huge success, guiding the Lionesses to European glory. You won the Euros with her in 2017. What has she done for the game in your home country? For Dutch football, massive. She’s a legend in Holland and in England right now. Together we’ve achieved so much and helped women’s football in the Netherlands. Her combination with Arjan is a pretty good team. She gets a team to work for her, she knows how to trigger players.

Do you feel you have learned something from her that you can use yourself in the future once you stop playing? I hope so! I’ll definitely stay in football, I love football. Maybe not as a manager, though, maybe as an assistant coach or something!

Five talking points about Jill Roord

– A sporting family, Roord had options when it came to her playing career. It wasn’t only football that was on the table in her early days, although she admits football was always her No.1. Jill’s Mum Chantal played basketball and, at 5ft 9in, her daughter could easily have followed in her footsteps but stuck to her first love, and “obsession”, the beautiful game.

– But despite that, the most famous name in the Roord household when Jill grew up was Dad Rene, who spent the bulk of his career with FC Twente, the club his daughter would make her senior professional debut with. Rene played in the same Netherlands youth team as three-time Ballon d’Or winner, Marco van Basten.

– With her Mum’s basketball links, it is no surprise Roord is a fan of the NBA and has one particular inspiration from the best league in the world. “I’ve never really been someone who has a big person I look up to but Michael Jordan was always one of my favorite athletes in the world,” she has said.

– The midfielder finished as Eredivisie top scorer in her native Netherlands while still a teenager, grabbing 20 goals as FC Twente retained the league title in 2016. She hit 31 goals in 69 appearances for Wolfsburg last term as they made the Champions League final in Eindhoven. Roord netted on her City debut in a 2-0 win at West Ham in October.

– Roord was part of the Dutch side which won what is currently the only major honour seven years ago as they claimed the European Championship on home soil, beating Denmark 4-2 in the final in Enschede. She also helped Holland to the World Cup final in 2019 and is set to feature in this summer Paris Olympics squad.