Pod Insights Great Company with Jamie Laing JILL SCOTT: What Football Can Teach Us | GREAT MOMENTS About this episode IT’S COMING HOME!
After seeing off Norway at the weekend, the England Men’s team are through to the semi-finals of the World Cup. Let’s frickinnn’ gooo!
As the team gets ready to face Argentina, there’s no better time to revisit my conversation with one of England’s greatest footballers. The one and only Jill Scott.
England's second most-capped player of all time, a Euros winner, a Lioness legend and now a much loved pundit, Jill has experienced the beautiful game from every angle.
In this Great Moment, Jill looks back on the moments on the pitch she’ll never forget and the lessons football has taught her along the way.
Listen to the full episode HERE https://open.spotify.com/episode/4mjTpFZUtFTnCexpzJccWQ?si=cXy4r-kWReawqEEWUlv4HQ!
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THE CREDITS
Producer: Helen Burke
Assistant Producer: Issy Weeks-Hankins
Video: Josh Bennett
Social Media: Laura Coughlan
Exec Producer: Ewan Newbigging-Lister & Jemima Rathbone
Great Company is an original podcast from JamPot
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Transcript 0:00 Speaker 00 Hey, it's Adam Grant from TED's Rethinking Podcast. As businesses scale, success depends on how well knowledge is captured, shared, and kept up to date. Camtasia Pro turns teams' expertise into engaging training, onboarding, and documentation. No professional editing experience required. With the industry's best screen recording, video editing, and AI-powered workflows, you can train faster and boost operational efficiency. Get over $100 off your first year at camtasia pro.com and start building a smarter way to educate customers, onboard employees, and ensure valuable expertise is shared across teams.
0:38 Speaker 01 Hello, everyone. I'm Jamie Laing, and this is Great Moments.
0:45 Speaker 01 Hey, everyone. I hope you're well and welcome back to Great Moments. Now, if you're new here, this is the place where I'm going to bring you a standout moment from one of my favorite Great Company conversations. These are the moments that have stayed with me long after the recording, and I hope you can take something away from them. Now, if today's conversation leaves you wanting more, you can find the link to the full episode in the show notes. So, sit back, settle in, and here it is.
1:13 Speaker 01 You've had 161 caps.
1:17 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:18 Speaker 01 For England.
1:18 Speaker 02 Yeah. It's a lot.
1:22 Speaker 01 That is mad.
1:22 Speaker 02 Yeah, I can't believe it, actually. Sometimes when I sit and talk about it, because when I was a young girl who just fell in love with the game of football, I never thought I'd play one game for England, never mind 161. So, yeah, I am very, very proud of that stat when I reflect.
1:41 Speaker 01 Are you actually proud? Because sometimes we just kind of say, I do this occasionally, which is where I think it's the Britishness in this, but also being a northern Brit as well. It's even more so you don't do it right, which is where, as long as you're proud, and I go, yeah, yeah, of course, I'm proud of myself. But actually, I don't really know if I'm proud of myself. I just kind of said, are you truly proud of yourself?
2:01 Speaker 02 Yeah, with that one, I am. I think because, and maybe it's because you're still going in your profession, whereas that part of my... Kind of life is over now, football. So I feel like I've closed the door on it. And maybe when I played, I was like, wow, I'm playing for England, but I was so focused on just giving it everything that I had to put in good performances to try and contribute to a team win. But I think now that that chapter's been closed for three years, I think I've been able to reflect, kind of seen little clips back of like tournaments, the Euros win and stuff like that. And I think I can probably finally sit here now and say, and I am proud that I did that. And don't get us wrong. I mean, I'm proud of the whole team. I'm proud of women's football,
2:46 Speaker 02 especially reflecting back on the journey to getting the Euros win. But probably just proud of being part of such a big thing like that.
2:55 Speaker 01 When you have to close the door on something.
2:56 Speaker 02 Yeah.
2:57 Speaker 01 How hard is that?
2:59 Speaker 02 It wasn't as hard as I thought it was gonna be from the sense that it was the perfect ending. For me, the fact that we got that gold medal at Wembley, I think it felt like the right time to close the door. I felt like if I was closing it after that, it would have been like a rusty close where my body couldn't go anymore. My knee was starting to swell and I was carrying a lot of injuries. So it was just nice to probably just give that door a little push and be like, right, it's time for the next chapter. And I knew deep down that tournament, I didn't play a lot. I was on the bench and in training. I felt like the game was just starting to get away from us a little bit.
3:38 Speaker 01 Can you feel that as a professional, you can start to go, wow.
3:42 Speaker 02 Yeah, I think when you've got players like Ella Toon, Alessio Russo, Lauren Hemp, who were younger and they're coming through and they're dancing around you at times, like you're not there. And I'm like, my head really wanted to do something that my body probably couldn't anymore. But I just felt extremely lucky that I'd made that squad. And the fact that I played about 35 minutes in the final, I kind of liked that. I was involved to a certain extent.
4:08 Speaker 01 When you went onto the pitch for that final against Germany, did you, did you know in your head, you're like, right? I'm just gonna, you had three things and I'm gonna run, that's okay, but I'm gonna just be a bit aggressive.
4:19 Speaker 02 Yeah.
4:19 Speaker 01 I'm gonna get someone, know that they've played against me, they're gonna feel a bit like roughed up.
4:24 Speaker 02 I was dying to get on because Kira Walsh, Georgia Stanway, they'd literally ran every single minute in midfield. So they'd done about six, seven games and I, my legs felt fresh because obviously I hadn't played a lot. And I could see they were starting to cramp a little bit and rightfully so, they'd covered so much ground, probably 11k game they'd covered. So I was like, get us on, like, I wanna help, I wanna help. So I was excited to come on to the pitch and I was like, I'm just gonna run as much as I can. Get in people's faces, make it difficult. And I think that was my game really. When I look back, I played against some of the best players in the world.
5:03 Speaker 02 Um, Alexia, who plays for Spain and Barcelona, Bonmati, and these were players that were absolutely brilliant. But my mindset was, you know what, today, I'm just gonna try and make you average, just get in your face, rough you up. And that was kind of my game plan really. So yeah, to get on the pitch in that final, I, I just wanted to run for the girls that had ran for so long.
5:26 Speaker 01 When you win something that big.
5:28 Speaker 02 Yeah.
5:30 Speaker 01 It's like an out of body experience, right?
5:32 Speaker 02 Yeah, it, it was just, it was ridiculous. I remember me, Lucy Bronze, Demi Stokes, I think we sat on that pitch for about an hour and a half after. Just looking at the fans and just thinking, wow. And I remember thinking, we're never gonna get this moment again. And then the girls go and do it again in three years later.
5:51 Speaker 01 God, this is the best team ever. No one's gonna do this again.
5:55 Speaker 02 I, I think I remember saying to them, girls, take this in because this is once in a lifetime. And they're probably thinking, we're gonna go and win it again in three years' time. So maybe I was just talking to myself then, but yeah, best feeling in the world.
6:10 Speaker 01 Do you think that, looking back at it, is that proudest moment of your life?
6:13 Speaker 02 Yeah, yeah. And I think whatever happens, I said to my, I actually said this in my speech the other day when I, I won this award and my partner Shelley was there. And I said, it was the best day of my life and it definitely will be. And I actually said to her on stage, I am sorry Shelley, like, if we want to get married or have children, hopefully. Um, I was like, it'll probably still be the best day of my life. Is that a bad thing to say?
6:38 Speaker 01 No, not at all. I know you've mentioned this before, but you you got caught on camera.
6:42 Speaker 02 Yeah.
6:45 Speaker 02 Although that sentence could go anywhere, so I'm glad I'm glad it's going where it's going.
6:50 Speaker 01 I don't know what you were thinking. Yeah, yeah. You were caught on camera doing what?
6:54 Speaker 02 How did he get that video?
7:00 Speaker 01 Caught on camera shouting something at a German player.
7:03 Speaker 02 Yeah, yeah.
7:04 Speaker 01 Can you can you repeat it? What did you say?
7:06 Speaker 02 Is this podcast allowed to?
7:08 Speaker 01 You can say anything you want on this podcast.
7:10 Speaker 02 So I did say fuck off, you fucking prick. And you know what? I don't even swear in day to day life. Like, honestly, I used to live, my house used to be like right on a park. And if the kids were swearing in the street, I'd be like, watch your language. There's like smaller kids around and you shouldn't be swearing. So I hate swearing, but in that moment, I felt like the camera did not do me justice that day. So basically she had my leg trapped and I couldn't get away. So I was just getting so angry and then I stood up. And I don't even think them words are in my vocabulary. I actually don't know where they came from. But I must have just been so passionate, so emotional. And then, yeah, and I remember getting home.
7:54 Speaker 02 A couple of weeks later, I was probably partying for that amount of time. And I think I told one of the kids on the park, I was like, watch your language. And they were like, you can talk. So I was like, I won't be saying that ever again. But yeah, I think it was just a outburst of passion.
8:10 Speaker 01 Has there ever been a time when you felt like you did let yourself down?
8:15 Speaker 02 Probably when you've just asked us that question suddenly, like there was a couple of times in my career when I got sent off. And that was probably more the case of letting myself down, but also the team. So I remember we had a cup final at Wembley. It was actually when Covid was, so there was nobody there. But we were playing this game, Man City v Chelsea in the cup final, and I actually got sent off and we lost that game. And it's a long walk down the tunnel and back to the changing rooms when there's a crowd there. I tell you now. It's so long when there's no crowd. It felt like the longest walk of my life and.
8:51 Speaker 01 And you're just hearing your stars go down.
8:52 Speaker 02 Oh, honestly. And then you're sat in the changing rooms and usually you can't hear anything because of the crowd. But I could hear every kick of the ball, every goal that went in. And yeah, I think that was a moment where I was like, I've let the team down here. Because if we'd kept 11 on the pitch, I believe we would have won that game. So probably when you ask that question, that's the first thing that comes into my head.
9:13 Speaker 01 Wow, it reminds me, and I don't know why, I know you're one of your heroes, David Beckham.
9:18 Speaker 02 Yes, I love David Beckham.
9:19 Speaker 01 Oh, man. He was, yeah, the him and Jonny Wilkinson, because obviously I'm a rugby player, as you know.
9:25 Speaker 02 Number 10, did you do the kicks?
9:26 Speaker 01 I did the kicks, number 10, fly half, I was a fullback, just, you know, just, I was multi-talented just on the field, put me anywhere. But that moment, I still remember when he got the red card.
9:37 Speaker 02 Yes.
9:38 Speaker 01 In the World Cup.
9:38 Speaker 02 Yeah.
9:39 Speaker 01 And, you know, he spoke about it in his document, he went through a whole hell of it, but just forget about what fans think and what everyone thinks outside of the media. Letting your team down in that moment when you make a mistake and you know it's just a moment of frustration or anger or, and you lash out or do something stupid.
9:56 Speaker 02 Yeah.
9:57 Speaker 01 And you just realise that, why have I done that?
9:59 Speaker 02 I must say, this shouldn't have been a red card, just to, just to clarify. It was a really bad refereeing decision.
10:05 Speaker 01 What did you do?
10:06 Speaker 02 One of them was actually, yeah, I did do that once, actually. That was my other sending off. But I didn't put my head back and forward. I just kind of put it forward. I don't know if that's any better, but yeah.
10:21 Speaker 01 Wait, hold on, hold on, hold on. So let's go.
10:23 Speaker 02 I wasn't going to bring this one up, that's why I went to the other one.
10:27 Speaker 01 Okay, so let's park the other one for a second.
10:30 Speaker 02 Okay, yeah, it's a bit boring, that one.
10:31 Speaker 01 So you head butted someone?
10:32 Speaker 02 Yeah, but again.
10:34 Speaker 01 Like Zidane style?
10:35 Speaker 02 No. Again, the girl was kind of like punching us in the stomach at the time and then she put her head towards me. And I must say, it is a natural human reaction. If I put my head to you now, you would meet my, I'm not saying you'd head butters, but you would meet my head. So in some kind of contact, I'm not getting out of this, am I? But yeah, basically I got sent off. That was against Arsenal. But that's my only two sending offs. That's not too bad, is it?
11:07 Speaker 01 Do you think you've always been competitive? Because I say that because you were a cross country runner when you were younger and you won the London mini marathon when you were 14 years old.
11:17 Speaker 02 Yeah.
11:18 Speaker 01 You obviously played a lot of football. Where does that competitive nature come from?
11:24 Speaker 02 I'm not too sure. I grew up with an older brother who was, I was gonna say about three years older than us. He still is three years older than us.
11:32 Speaker 01 Because it does change as we get older.
11:33 Speaker 02 Yeah, exactly.
11:34 Speaker 01 He's now younger than me.
11:36 Speaker 02 Everyone thinks we're twins and I'm like, he's three years older than me. But I think I always wanted to be better than him and he was fast, he could play football and whatever he could do, I wanted to do better. Even if we were playing like FIFA on the computer or anything like that. I was a really, really bad loser. But I think when I speak about being competitive, I always wanted to win, but I think it was more, I just wanted to do the best that I could do. I never wanted to like let myself down and that's something that's probably stuck with us. Like I put a lot of work in to whatever I'm doing because I just want to do the best that I can do.
12:15 Speaker 02 And I remember a football manager saying to us one year, he said, whatever you do, just look yourself in the mirror at the end of the day and think, could I have done any more today? And that stuck with us. It was Nick Cushion, who was Manchester City women's manager and that stuck with us. So I like to think, like, I don't actually stand in front of the mirror every night and go, Jill, could you have been better today? But it's something, it's something that I always think, did I prepare right? Did I do the best that I could? And yeah, so I think it's a competitive kind of nature with myself in a way as well.
12:50 Speaker 01 The healthiest one?
12:51 Speaker 02 Yeah, I think so. I think so.
12:53 Speaker 01 I, because I, I remember speaking to, weirdly, a therapist and the therapist said to me, and I said, I think the problem with like life at the moment is like, and I was probably around 29, 30, I was like, I'm comparing myself to so many people.
13:06 Speaker 02 Yeah.
13:06 Speaker 01 And like people who I work with or people who I know and people are doing better or worse. I'm constantly looking what people are doing. And she said, why are you doing that? I said, well, because that's, then I compare. And I see what I'm doing. She says, no, you've just got to compare yourself to yourself.
13:18 Speaker 02 Yeah.
13:19 Speaker 01 If you're doing better than you were doing yesterday, or better than you were doing last year, that's the most important thing. That means you're doing better. So keep doing that.
13:25 Speaker 02 Yeah, and I think we can get caught up because of social media now, like constantly thinking our lives aren't good enough and comparing to everybody else. Like, somebody does a post and you think, oh, they had a better week than me, or they'll put something on, you think, oh, well, I haven't got that. But I think I've always been quite good at, like, I love to see other people doing well. I'm like, oh, that's brilliant. And I think in football, I used to always say, you don't compete with each other. Like, if we all do well, we can get to whatever you perceive to be the top together. And yeah, it might happen at different times for different people, but I just always wanted to be a better version of myself. And I think in society today, we probably could be better at supporting others.
14:09 Speaker 02 And I hear loads of people when they say, um, oh, so and so did really well and oh, so and so looks great. And I'm the person that'll go and find that person and tell them, like, I'll meet people and I'll go, you know what? Somebody said to me last week, like, how beautiful you look and you're doing so well. And, cause I think we're not very good at actually telling the person sometimes. So I think when people meet us for the first time, they think I'm a bit weird, cause I'm like, you know, so and so from down the road, they said, you look beautiful last week on telly.
14:38 Speaker 01 Jill, that's amazing, though.
14:40 Speaker 02 So.
14:40 Speaker 01 I, my, my buddy told me the same thing. He said, what I do now, if I'm talking about someone.
14:45 Speaker 02 Yeah.
14:46 Speaker 01 With someone. I always message and say, we've just been talking about you. Oh, we think you're amazing at this, that. And I was like, that's such a nice thing, cause we love being told nice things. And we don't really, we forget to say to people, oh my god, a friend was saying you're looking beautiful, the way you played was amazing, or the fact that you inspired me here. That's a really, and that knock on effect is so nice.
15:04 Speaker 02 Yeah, I, I do think it's an important thing and I don't know why we don't do it as much now. I'm not too sure, but I do try to.
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