Set in July August 19
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Fresh from the 6 week off season Gia was waiting anxiously by her phone expecting an important call. Prior to off season and a few days post the champions league final in which she played for spurs men's team discussions had already started about her future at the club, her contract was out of date and she had a decision to make. Tottenham Hotspur wanted to see her sign a new 5 year deal at the club as she proved pivotal in their success especially in the past 12 months as the team made 4th in the premiere league and 2nd in the champions league.
Gia had been thinking about what she wanted since the beginning of the 18/19 season, she knew her contract would be up by the time the season finished and she wanted to be sure she had considered all her options and made the right decision for her career in the future. Gia had been at tottenham since she was 8 years old as was scouted into their training academy. She felt incredibly comfortable and at home with everyone and had grown so much as a player and a person, Gia felt she owed her success to the club and everyone that invested in her talent and progression. Although she was starting to get an itch for a new environment and a new challenge.
The young lady felt immense pressure on her at all time since she was the one woman chosen from the Tottenham ladies team to join the men back in august of 2018 as all the governing bodies of football globally including the FA and UEFA in Gia's case had decided that they would start to bring about change and integrate the men's and women's game by imposing a rule that every league club had to include one woman in their first team. This did not mean the woman had to necessarily start or play in every game but a woman had to be named for the team and if the bodies saw frequent times where one of the woman who made the teams wasn't chosen to play for any reason other than injury or strategy they would investigate for any behind the scenes prejudice.
joining the men's team was exciting along with daunting for Gia, she knew the players and the staff well as she was the current women's team captain and basically grew up in the training grounds. She lived around the corner most of her life after her family relocated from Croydon in south London to Tottenham in the north at aged 11 so she could be closer to the training grounds and attend a school nearby where many of the academy kids went. Gia was a natural choice for captain of the ladies, she played predominantly as a centre forward or a left winger. She trained a lot as a striker moving up through the age groups but found the centre forward and winger roles fit her better as she liked to get more into the play and feed her teammates passes whilst being able to score goals herself too. She wanted to be a complete player and worked very hard defensively also. She became captain at aged 20 and led the ladies with a lot of heart and support she was a natural leader and a great listener when anyone needed help or advice. She loved being a captain and did miss this when transferring to the men's side.
There were a lot of opinions flying around including for and against the switch in the footballing world when the announcement was made 3 months prior to the change. Much discussion went on at every league club in the world about who would be chosen. The decision in Gia's case was pretty much unanimous. She was the stand out player for spurs ladies and although the team would be loosing their captain and arguably their most important player, the club decided she would make the best choice to join the men's side. Gia's teammates were happy for her and thanked her for everything she had done for them all. She would still see them all the time training at the grounds and this made her very happy. she grew a lot with these women and wanted to stay in touch.
When the announcement was made to the world that she would be picked to make the switch there was a lot of media coverage as there was with every woman who was chosen. As the men's game gets a lot more publicity Gia had to learn to deal with the praise as well as the criticism.
the day that the announcement was made was organised so that all other clubs in the world announced on the same day in august 2018 and the woman would immediately from then on be part of the men's 1 st team. Gia had to do many press conferences on this day before she could eventually meet the men's team and coaching staff properly as a fellow player. She never looked at anything that was written about her at the start, she did not want it to affect her early on into the transition. Gia knew most of the guys well including Harry Kane, Harry Winks, Eric Dier, Heung Min Son, Dele alli and Hugo Lloris. The rest of the guys she got to know better as well as Mauricio Pochettino and his team as time went on. Initially she was worried she may not get a lot of play time as Tottenham had a good pick of attacking players and they didn't tend to switch it up very much unless there were match bans or injuries. Harry Kane England captain was always chosen as their centre forward for good reason with his goal scoring record. This made Gia nervous but she knew the team were very aware she could play as a winger or attacking midfielder which gave them many options. They saw her as a valuable player who was comfortable switching up play.
As time went on Gia became great friends with the lads and fit in well. They all saw her potential and how hard she worked, treating her like a sister and someone they looked out for as she was frequently playing in the an attacking midfielder role alongside Dele and/or christian Eriksen. She on a few occasions played centre forward when Harry was injured or rested. Having to fill in for son on the wing on a few occasions due to match bans. Many were calling her the most complete player on the team as she was scoring important goals for the club as well as setting up her team mates and making defensive runs and blocks to minimise counter attacks from the the team they were playing.
There was discussion int he sporting news a few months down the line by October about her contract coming to an end in August 19 and there seemed to be overwhelming interest from clubs all over the world but mainly premiere league giants Liverpool and Chelsea. In the new system if a club wanted to sign a new female player to replace their 1 they would need to give the current female player the choice between ending their contract early and going up for transfer or going back to the women's team. Liverpool and Chelsea both knew early on the women on their squads had contracts that would end around the same time as Gia's and they and the players had come to an agreement they would both go up for transfer.
Gia tried not to think too hard about her decision she still had 10 months until August. She focused hard on helping her team as high up the table as they could get and Spurs made an impressive start in both major competitions, as the months went on she grew close with her teammates and found the impending decision frequently on her mind. Having spoken with Mauricio in February (2019) who expressed that he and the board wanted her to progress with them and offered her a large pay rise and a 5 year contract for her to consider carefully which she did. As the months went on and Gia had gotten further through the competitions with her club she noted how much she enjoyed playing in the big competitions and how far she thought she could go to help her team.
Even though both competitions ended in disappointment for Tottenham she was proud of her first season in the men's team. There was no denying by anyone fan or news outlet that she had brought the team together and had a major impact on their ambition. After the champions league final she knew the 6 weeks off season was going to be of high importance as she would need to sign the new contract at Tottenham or agree to a transfer to a new club.
by June she had the offer from Tottenham along with Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester United, Barcelona and Juventus. Gia enjoyed watching the Spanish league in particular as well as bits of the Italian league but was not keen to relocate internationally as her family were all in London and she was an incredibly family orientated person. In the future she may consider it but for now she loved England and the premiere league. Gia considered staying at Tottenham, she had developed so much over the last year but felt like she may not be able to past her current level if she stayed. She wanted to join a club where the approach was more fed by heart and passion. Saying in London was a possibility with Chelsea but Gia felt no pull to the club, Liverpool sparked her interest as the passion from the fans and players was something that was always so apparent to her when she had played against the team in the past especially at Anfield. The atmosphere was always electric and the team had just won the champions league. they were incredible and so well balanced. Their game was full of heart and determination, Gia felt she would fit in best in a team with those kind of characteristics.
She had 4 of the 6 weeks to consider her options as she made her final decision whilst on holiday with her family in Greece. Gia's father Edward was a huge football enthusiast having grown up in Croydon he was a big Crystal Palace supporter along with Tottenham of course to show support for his daughter. Gia spent a lot of the trip talking to her father who agreed with her that she should go with her heart and desire to follow her passion to Liverpool.
Once Gia arrived home in London in the first few days of August she called her agent and got the ball rolling in the signing to Liverpool once she spoke to Mauricio and the spurs team. She would be needed in Liverpool the week after (1 week before the pre season started) so she could go through her medical and officially sign on. She was kept busy for the rest of her time in London finding a flat in Liverpool and sorting everything she would need to be able to move and start almost a fresh in a new city. The family supported her in making it all happen and exactly a week after she made her final decision she was now in Liverpool on her way to the training centre to meet the team and sign on the dotted line. Today would be the day the media would find out she was signing too. The speculation was rife between Liverpool and Chelsea but luckily nothing had leaked and there was no overwhelming favourite at this time in the papers and news outlets.
Gia had seen and spoken to as many of the spurs staff and players (the ones that were back from the off season at least) about her move and thanking them all for everything before she left for Liverpool. Those she couldn't see she wrote letters for and left them with Mauricio at the training grounds for them to receive when they start pre season. She did not want the team to think she was abandoning them without a second thought, she loved her team and would miss them very much. She looked forward to playing against them so she could see them all again.
Once Gia had met Jurgen and the team, she took her medical and passed. Gia had to do all the normal transfer activities such as posing for photos in her new kit, posing for pictures signing with Jurgen and taking part in interviews for Liverpool's social media where they would reveal the news. The reaction was good. she received a lot of love from her previous team as well as a bit of disappointment from them and the spurs fans. Whilst being interviewed by the Liverpool media team she was reminded that any time in the next few days the England national team would need to select their 1 woman. National teams were to select a female player one year after league teams so women had a chance to get used to being in the men's game before they were thrust into both teams if picked. Gia knew this would be coming but she was nervous she may not be picked. Her England lioness teammates were all brilliant especially Ellen White. there was a lot of speculation about Gia and Ellen and there was odds on who would be chosen.
Gia answered in the interview that she would be honoured to join the men's team but either way she is fortunate to play for her country and whatever happens happens. There was still 3 days left before pre season. Gia had not officially met the men's 1st team yet. She had been at the Liverpool training grounds giving all of her information on boot sizes and kit sizes to the team so they could find out how she liked her kit and ready her private changing room which was a partition room on the end of the men's changing room. It was like this at every club now, the women were not to be separate so they could feel part of the team. They had a door on their partition so they could change privately and the men were urged to remain decently dressed around the women when they were in the dressing room always remaining in at least shorts or joggers. Any full on changing had to be done in the segregated showers.
Whilst at the club she felt her phone buzzing in her pocket. Gia did not want to be rude as she was halfway through a conversation with the kit team. As the talk was coming to the end Jurgen joined them in one of the meeting rooms and advised Gia may want to check her phone. It turns out Gia had 3 missed calls from her agent Tom. She started to excuse herself leaving the room to call tom but Jurgen dismissed the kit team and advised her to put the phone on speaker and he sat next to her. Gia found out from tom that the England national team were offering her the position with the men. She now understood why Jurgen wanted her to call back straight away and why he sat with her. He knew tom must have told him. Gia was surprised she didn't allow herself to get too used to idea as she was not sure if Ellen would be picked over her. She was thrilled and had set up a meeting with the team in London the next day to make it official.
A lot was changing in her life as if it hadn't already last year. Now a new team and new home and she was joining the men's national team. Gia couldn't believe her luck but she was also nervous. what if the last year was just a fluke she may not be able to up herself this season and it would be there for everyone to witness. The young forward had a lot of work to do to become one of the best as she so always dreamed of.
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This is just an introduction of how this story has been set up. From here on in it will set in mid august 19 and will be more story like and personal.
:)