Ruby Mace: My grassroots story

Since birth, I’ve had a football at my feet. When the ball was at my feet, all my bad thoughts just disappeared and that’s something that’s carried on right to this day. I know that football is my peace – I’ve found peace in football and I’m very happy about that.

My dad used to play and my brother used to play as well, so from just going to his games, it was a no-brainer for my family for me to get involved in football.

I started off at a club called UPR which was my local team – Upminster Park Rovers – based in Essex. I was welcomed into a boys’ team and they absolutely loved me and I loved them as well. I just remember falling in love with the game.

I definitely think the boys underestimated me, thinking, ‘oh, there’s a girl in the team’. Until the girl tackles you hard, they don’t respect you. I think I got respect from a lot of the boys and that’s something I cherish.

That’s where my love for football grew – just playing and being happy and not taking it too seriously until it needed to be serious.

It was football, football, football! I did have a little phase of athletics when I was represented the region but I just fell in love with football. It was the best path for me.

From there, I went on to play for Arsenal, Manchester City and then Leicester City. My move to Arsenal was very important for me at that age – I think I was seven – to be in and around a girls’ time but I definitely think being with the boys helped me.

It was different because all I knew was training with boys and when I went to Arsenal, it was something new being with all girls. When I was 15 at Arsenal, I got asked to train with the Arsenal boys just to push on my development and it made me cast my mind back to when I was training and playing with the boys’ team at grassroots level.

Looking back now, I’ve definitely changed but there are still aspects of my game that are the same!