Born in Stockton-on-Tees, Nobbs started at Sunderland’s centre of excellence aged eight. She remained there for nearly 10 years, and was part of the same generation as England team-mates Lucy Bronze, Lucy Staniforth and Demi Stokes.
She recalls the thrill of playing her first match at the Stadium of Light aged just seven, during half-time of a men’s match. She even admits she kept some of the grass shoots that stuck to her wet boots that day, stored safely in a book as a memento of the day her football dream began.
That Nobbs will be returning to that very stadium for England’s tie against Austria on Saturday makes her call up all the more special. She will share it with other Sunderland graduates Stokes, Mead and Jill Scott, and manager Sarina Wiegman has been watching the Netflix documentary ‘Sunderland ‘Till I Die’ in preparation for the homecoming of sorts. “Has she really?” Nobbs grins. “It’s great that we can show what we did at Sunderland. Hopefully, it keeps girls up there still wanting to play.”
Sunderland, now a Championship side, are no longer producing an assembly line of Lionesses and there are now no clubs from the North East in the top division. “If it was the way it was now, we might not have had the same opportunities,” Nobbs says. “Unfortunately you need the men’s teams to invest and it looks like they haven’t. I don’t know who pushes that, but naturally you’d hope someone eventually says, we need a bit more from this.”
After missing the World Cup and the Olympics, playing for England in Sunderland is the first step to hopefully appearing at the home Euros next summer. It would be just reward for Nobbs who, despite earning 60 England caps and previously serving as vice captain, has only played one match at a major tournament at the 2015 World Cup.
First, she must impress Wiegman, as well as re-establish herself at Arsenal, who are flying at the top of the WSL table. Nobbs has made four substitute appearances so far and, amid her injuries, admits she sometimes doubted how she would slot back in. She knew new manager Jonas Eidevall had his pick of quality summer signings to replace her. “I thought, God, has Jonas seen me at my best?” she says. But if her injuries changed her in any way, it is that she no longer stresses over what she cannot control.
“It’s not letting football become everything, which has happened to me in the past,” she says. “In the women’s game, you have to do everything perfect – it’s not like I can play three leagues below and earn a living. So you have to live in a bubble. But, when you’re injured, it can suffocate you when it goes wrong. I would say I’ve chilled out a little bit.”
Still, she blushes when admitting how her work-life balance actually plays out. “There’s a little 10 per cent you need to allow to enjoy normal life,” she laughs, adding in her defence: “Football’s a short career, you want to throw everything at it.”
