‘I’d love the chance to show that, as a woman, I’m a good coach’
Villa veteran Nobbs is planning for life when she hangs up her boots, she tells Suzanne Wrack
There is a moment in every player’s career when they start to think about life after the game. Playing careers are short, a fraction of your working years. For women footballers, the much lower wages means that plan B needs to be prepared for far sooner too.
Jordan Nobbs has no intention of hanging up her boots just yet, but at 32 , the WSL appearance record holder has been thinking about her next steps. Nobbs recently started a Uefa B Licence coaching course. A transition into coaching is a common progression for many retiring players, a stopgap while they work out their next move.
“It’s definitely something I want to have in my locker,” says Nobbs, but coaching in the women’s game is something she is passionate about. “The game’s changing now, not as many players want to go into coaching.”
The Aston Villa midfielder, who is set for a critical game against bottom-placed Crystal Palace today, is a football obsessive: when she’s not playing it she’s watching it.
Gaining her B Licence has been a work in progress. The former Arsenal player started the course shortly before Covid hit, which meant putting it on hold. Now on the course properly, she is soaking up everything, from the syllabus itself and those around her on the course. “[Villa defender] Tyrone Mings is doing the badges with us, and I think the more opportunities you get to speak to different people and different managers the more you can pick up. You take the good bits, and you learn from the bad bits.”
With fewer players shifting into coaching as other roles open up, in administration or the media or elsewhere within the game, Nobbs feels a responsibility to contribute to growing the pool of female coaches in the women’s game. “You look at the likes of Hope Powell and Emma Hayes, big, big managers that have done so well in the women’s game,” she says.
“The hard part is that playing football is hard mentally and physically and then you go into coaching, which is pretty much the same working pattern with a lot more on top. I can understand why that can take a lot out of you. It’s not an easy job but I just love football, I love talking about it, I love coaching it, that’s a big part of why I’m still playing now. I love soaking up all that information and if there is an opportunity in the future where I can show, as a woman, that I’m a good coach then that would be great for the game too.”
Having made her senior debut for Sunderland at 16 and spending 13 years at Arsenal before joining Aston Villa in 2023, Nobbs has experienced an array of coaches with different styles and ways of working. In her experience, the key to being a successful manager is “honest conversation”.
“As a player you always just want to know where you stand,” says Nobbs. “What I’ve learned is that whenever a player knows their role, has clarity in it and what they are doing, they’re always in the best position to have freedom within it. My philosophy would be to not over-complicate things too much. As a footballer that goes into management. I think you understand what players go through, how much they need a support network around them too, so that would also be important to me.”
Nobbs understands the need for a life plan after playing perhaps more than most. Injuries have sidelined her at key moments, including an ACL rupture that ended her 2019 World Cup dreams while she was playing some of her best football. Those injuries make her appearance record all the more impressive. Ironically, now she is feeling really good in her body. “Football’s strange,” she says. “The last two years, I’ve had the fewest injuries in my football career and I’m obviously at the later stage of it.”
Playing a more defensive role has helped – “you use a bit less of your legs” – but she also just understands her body better. “I’m not afraid to speak up now If I’m tired. When I was younger, I just wanted to play everything and be a part of everything and not miss out. That shows the competitive side of me, but you’ve got to have that sensible head too and think about what’s better for you in the long term.”
Does she still harbour international ambitions? “I would never close that door,” says Nobbs. “You never know what can happen. All I can do is play my best at Villa and if that opportunity comes, it comes. If it doesn’t, Sarina Wiegman’s a top, top manager who knows what she’s doing.”
‘Playing football is hard mentally and physically and then you go into coaching, which is pretty much the same working pattern with a lot more on top’