Back at her former school in East London, Alex Scott MBE reflects on the people who shaped her journey from local football cages to the England team and the world of broadcasting. As part of the Chase football Coaching Programme, she is helping champion the next generation and the grassroots coaches who make their ambitions possible.
The first time I see Alex Scott MBE, she is standing inside the football cage at Langdon Park School, her former secondary school in East London, watching the next generation play. She is on the other side of the pitch, cheering on the children as they train, her attention fixed on the game unfolding in front of her.
It feels significant to be meeting her here. Scott has spent much of her career making space for women in football and broadcasting, and today she is back in the place where her own ambitions began, meeting pupils who are only just starting to imagine what theirs might look like. I was part of the generation of girls Alex Scott inspired, and meeting her at Langdon Park felt a long way from first seeing her in the pages of British Vogue, where she was named among the Vogue 25 in 2019, a list celebrating the women shaping Britain.
Scott arrives at Langdon Park as part of the Chase Football Coaching Programme, which helps people from low-income backgrounds access introductory coaching qualifications and professional coaching bursaries. Earlier, she has been speaking about opportunity, the role of grassroots coaches and the people who make a difference long before anyone becomes a household name. Now, she is watching the children on the pitch, a familiar setting for someone whose own story began with a football and a dream.
Scott’s career has taken her from East London to the international stage. She won 140 caps for England, represented Great Britain at the London 2012 Olympic Games and spent much of her playing career at Arsenal, winning domestic and European honours. After retiring from professional football, she became one of the most recognisable faces in sports broadcasting, presenting major football coverage and helping bring the women’s game to wider audiences. She was appointed an MBE in 2017 for services to football and received further recognition for her work in broadcasting. Her place in Vogue 25 speaks to the breadth of a career that now extends well beyond the pitch.
Yet, standing at Langdon Park, she is most interested in the connection between the person she was here and the person she has become.
“Even walking through the school gates, it just took me back to when I used to come in my school uniform and walk out exactly onto the same pitch where I used to play at playtimes and lunchtimes,” she tells me. “The dream was always to play for Arsenal and for England.”
Returning to the school has brought those early ambitions into focus. The children already know who she is. They have seen her on television and, as she points out with a smile, they recognise her from FC 27. She does not need to explain her achievements to them. What matters is letting them see the place she came from.
“I suppose sometimes it’s just about coming back and showing the kids that, you know, it’s real. This is where I grew up. This is where I came to school, and through football, I’ve managed to travel the world and do things that I still pinch myself about.”
For Scott, that is the point of coming home. Her journey is something she can tell the pupils about, but it is also something they can see for themselves. A girl who once played on this pitch went on to represent her country, travel the world and build a career in an industry that has changed considerably during her lifetime.
Growing up in East London, did she ever imagine the life she has today? Looking back at her younger self, what would that girl be most proud of?
Scott speaks about the assumptions that can follow children growing up in low-income, inner-city communities. She remembers the importance of having someone who could help her imagine a future beyond the immediate circumstances of her life.
“There’s always sometimes a perception of kids that grow up in kind of inner-city areas that are low income, that they’re never going to amount to much,” she says. “So, to go on and achieve what I have done, that’s my story that I love coming back to share: that no matter your background, no matter what’s going on, there are opportunities for you if you believe in yourself, and you can go and reach that.”
It is a message she returns to throughout our conversation, particularly when we discuss the people who helped her along the way. For Scott, ambition has always been personal, but opportunity is something that communities have to help create. Her own career depended on a combination of determination and the people who made it possible for her to keep playing.
One name comes up repeatedly: Edwin Lewis, the youth worker who supported her growing up.
“The main person that I keep mentioning today is Edwin Lewis,” she says. “I think youth workers play such a key role in kids’ lives, and he was that for me.”
Lewis lived just five minutes from the school. He would drive Scott to training and make sure children in the area had somewhere to spend time together. Sometimes that meant playing football; sometimes it meant gathering around a PlayStation. The details are ordinary in the best possible way: lifts to training, time spent together, a trusted adult who kept encouraging the children to think about what they might become.
“He would drive me to training, or he would make sure that all the kids in the area had somewhere to be together,” Scott recalls. “But always planting the seed that, you know, you can be a footballer. You can succeed. You can do that.”
Then she adds: “He just allowed us to dream, while making sure that we believed in that dream.”
It is a particularly telling detail in a conversation about grassroots football. We tend to remember the goals, the trophies and the players who make it to the top. The people who help them get there often remain in the background. Scott is keen to bring those people into view, and she sees coaching as a way of giving others the support she received.
That is where the Chase Football Coaching Programme comes in. The programme offers fully funded access to introductory coaching qualifications and professional coaching bursaries for people from low-income backgrounds across England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The aim is to make coaching more accessible by easing the financial pressure that can prevent people from taking the first step.
“I think that’s why the Chase programme is so good,” Scott says. “Giving people the opportunity, taking away that financial burden that could be on people to get a qualification. There’s an opportunity there for you to go and get a qualification, so go grab it.”
She remembers the practical challenges of her own football journey. Teammates who lived in East London would pick her up and drive her to Highbury, where Arsenal played, and she recalls taking the 277 bus when she needed to make the journey herself. These are the sorts of details that can disappear from a success story once the career has taken off, but Scott is clear that they are part of hers.
“Oh gosh, like I said, so different,” she says when I ask how her life might have turned out without the people who supported her. “From the coaches like Edwin Lewis taking me to training, to other teammates that lived in East London picking me up and driving me to Highbury.”
She believes people connect most strongly with stories that include the difficult, practical parts of getting somewhere.
“If you want to take an opportunity or make something, it’s never, ever going to be perfect,” she says. “And I suppose the moment we stop talking about role models as being perfect and start sharing the real stories behind it, then that’s when I think the real connection starts.”
Scott has had to navigate her own share of those realities. During her playing career, girls’ football was still treated by some as an unlikely ambition. Moving into broadcasting brought another set of assumptions about who should be discussing football on television, particularly men’s football.
“It was always the perception that girls shouldn’t be playing football and that they won’t be, or it would never be a realistic dream,” she says. “And then I suppose making that transition into broadcasting, same thing, right? That, you know, we shouldn’t be talking about men’s football. We shouldn’t be on TV talking about football. And it was like, why not? When I sit at home, I watch it. I played it at every single level.”
Being among the first women to occupy certain spaces meant having to contend with the expectations that came with it. Scott understands that the work is ongoing, and she is conscious of what it means to remain visible for those who might follow.
“As a mixed-race woman who’s played at the highest level and established herself in broadcasting, have you ever felt you’ve had to work twice as hard to be taken seriously?” I ask her.
“Do I think it’s changing? I mean, the dream is there and you hope so, but I still think we’re a long way off, if I’m being honest,” she says. “Are there things that I have to deal with on a daily basis? Yes.”
She has a clear sense of why she continues. “The moment I give up is then the next person will give up. So I know sometimes it can be heavy and it can be hard, but I always remind myself of the why. The reason that I’m doing it is because I absolutely love it, and the reason that I can inspire someone else to keep dreaming that they can be in that space.”
Representation, for Scott, is tied to the possibility of someone else seeing a future for themselves. It is also about making room for a fuller picture of who women in sport can be.
Beyond football and broadcasting, her personal style has become part of her public identity. I ask whether fashion has always been a way of expressing herself, or whether that relationship has evolved as she has grown more confident.
“I think definitely it’s evolved with confidence,” she says. “I think sometimes there was always kind of a feeling that you had to fit into a certain mould or you had to look a certain way.”
As her confidence grew, she became more comfortable showing people who she really was. “I wanted to show people that this is the real me, not who outside noise thinks Alex Scott is.”
There is a natural ease to the way she speaks about the life she has built outside football. Despite presenting to millions of viewers and playing in front of thousands at World Cups, she describes herself as shy and introverted. In a crowded room, she is likely to be the person standing at the back until someone comes over to speak to her.
“I love being home, seeing my family and my friends, and just kind of having that downtime, really,” she says. With life moving at 100 miles per hour, she also loves to travel, spend time in nature, explore and continue to learn.
The conversation turns to London weather, and she is unequivocal about her preference for sunshine. “When I wake up and it’s grey outside, it depresses me,” she says, laughing. It is a small glimpse of the person behind the public figure, someone who has become accustomed to being watched while still valuing the quiet parts of life.
When we return to football, I ask about the people who make success possible. YouGov research cited as part of the event suggests that four in five young people who look up to someone in sport admire a famous player or athlete, while one in four look up to a coach or PE teacher. The figures raise a question about whose influence is most visible.
“I think maybe, but I think it’s then more on people like myself to continue to share those stories or amplify those voices,” Scott says. “So that those coaches know that they’re seen and that they’re appreciated.”
She believes the same attention should be given to access. Women’s football has grown significantly, attracting major investment and global audiences, and the England team has helped bring the game to a much wider public. For Scott, that progress needs to reach girls in communities where getting to training can still be difficult.
“Would I have struggled if I had to go far outside of London to get training or been able to get there?” she asks. “I just think it’s important that we don’t miss the talent from sort of the areas, like in East London, that I’ve come through, because there are plenty of talented young girls.”
Her point is rooted in her own experience. Talent needs somewhere to develop, and opportunity has to be accessible enough for young people to take it. Coaches, transport, funding and local facilities all play a part in whether a dream can become a routine: getting to training, turning up each week and learning the game.
Asked what football has taught her that she carries into her life and career today, Scott first says perseverance. Then she changes her mind.
“Actually, I think the biggest one that I’ve taken is that I am and always will be a team player.”
She has carried the lessons of leadership into broadcasting, where a successful programme depends on the work of many people. She is quick to recognise those whose contributions might go unnoticed, from the person behind the camera to the runner who brings her a cup of tea.
“Sometimes the quietest voice is the most important voice,” she says. “Even though, yes, it’s maybe a TV show, actually you’re a team, and you need each of you.”
She continues: “That’s a huge part of everyone being equally as important. It’s not just me because I’m the TV or I’m the host.”
By the time I ask my final question, the conversation has come full circle. Scott has spent the day with pupils at the school she once attended, and I want to know what she hopes they will take away from meeting her. What would she say to a young girl with big ambitions who cannot yet see a clear route towards achieving them?
“Believe in yourself,” she says. “Because honestly, if I managed to go on and travel the world and managed to do what I’ve done, then you can certainly do it. But you just have to believe in yourself.”
She is realistic about the work involved. “Is it going to be easy to get there? No. But when you do get there, it will be worth it for sure.”
She hopes the pupils leave with a sense of how possible it can be to build a life around something they love. She wants them to see her as someone they can relate to, someone who began in the same place they are standing now.
“Hopefully they can go away today from the visit and be like, ‘Wow, Alex is just so normal. Alex is so real. And I want to now go and achieve what she’s managed to.’”
Back on the pitch at Langdon Park, Scott is watching children play in a place she knows well. She remembers arriving in her school uniform, the dream of Arsenal and England already taking shape, and the people who helped her keep it alive. Now, the children in front of her have their own ambitions to discover. The message she has brought home is simple: believe in what you want to do, find the people who will help you get there, and make sure the next generation has the opportunity to begin.
On my way home, I can’t help but feel that the little girl in me has been given another reason to dream, to take on life with greater confidence and to believe that there is room for me
For more information on the Chase football coaching programme, visit: https://www.chase.co.uk/gb/en/chase-football-coaching-programme/
