If you have the opportunity to have the greatest player in the history of English women’s football help your team improve, why wouldn’t you take it? That’s exactly what Arsenal did earlier this year when they brought England legend Kelly Smith back to the club as an assistant coach - and now she’s looking to help Alessia Russo shine in attack.
Smith is widely regarded as the Lionesses’ greatest ever footballer and, in between spells across the pond where she won huge praise from United States women’s national team icon Mia Hamm, it was with Arsenal where she enjoyed great club success, most notably winning the UEFA Women’s Champions League, then known as the UEFA Women's Cup, in 2007.
Now, Smith is back with the Gunners and her job is to help Russo and co make the north London club better and better. “It's super special to be back at the club that I played for for so many years,” Smith told INDIVISA on the latest episode of Box to Box. “When I retired in 2016, I thought I'd just be watching them as a fan and doing punditry work and going to the games, but I'm back in a different capacity now as an assistant coach and I'm really loving it. I'm getting to work with world-class players.
“My main focus is working with Alessia Russo, Vivianne Miedema and Stina Blackstenius because I was a striker and that's where my love lies. I'm working with them on a daily basis, trying to improve their goal-scoring opportunities, watching video with them and just finding that one or two percent that can make them better in game situations.”
There weren’t many better than Smith back in her playing days and, as well as chatting about the new chapter of her career with INDIVISA, she also reflected on her memories with England, playing and scoring at a Women’s World Cup, having her jersey number retired by Seton Hall University and why she knew she had to go to the U.S. if she wanted to be a professional footballer.
“I remember the first time I saw Kelly play,” Hamm, the USWNT legend and one of the greatest players in the history of the women’s game, once said. “She's incredibly technical, with great speed of thought and play. Her touch is different class. Everything's clean. Everything's with a purpose. The pace of her passes are always perfect and she can score at will, too.”
“Everybody knows who Mia Hamm is,” Smith said. “I was fortunate enough to play against her, when I played for England against America and then in the professional league when I was out in America. She's such an icon, a legend in the game and a fantastic striker that did amazing things for America for so many years. For her to say this, it's really nice, because I respected her as a player. She is just a legend of the game.”
Check out the full episode of Box to Box on the INDIVISA YouTube channel.