Life After Football: Steph Houghton | OneFootball

As we build towards our new CITY+ documentary 'Life After Football', we focus on the five main protagonists featured in this must-watch City Studios masterpiece...

City and England legend Steph Houghton's desire was to remain in football after calling time on her magnificent career...

THE NEXT CHAPTER: STEPH HOUGHTON

Of all the players featured in Life After Football, Steph Houghton is the most recent retiree.

A Manchester City and Lionesses’ legend, Houghton called time on her career at the end of last season.

After 22 years in the games which included 421 appearances at club level and 121 England caps, she felt it was time to move in a different direction.

And that meant remaining a Manchester City employee.

“It's going to be a bit of a change,” said Houghton.

“For me, I'm very structured in what I do, so probably the hardest part for me is knowing that there isn't such a structure around my life anymore.”

For her final game at the Joie Stadium, Houghton was given a guard of honour as she came out for the last time.

She told the crowd: “The last ten years, I’ve absolutely, probably died for this club, every single day.

“It just, it means absolutely everything. Manchester City will be part of my futurefor the foreseeable.”

And true to her word, that meant a new role at the Club ambassador and project officer.

Whether that moves into coaching at any stage remains to be seen, but to have such a respected leader and former captain around the Club means there is a wealth of experience and knowledge on tap whenever needed.

“Those feelings, when you win things as a high like, I think it would be hard to replicate in some way,” she admits.

“When it's gone, it's gone, you know, you're never going to feel those feelings again.

“Hopefully I can find some sort of happiness in a work situation and still be as ambitious as I have been over my career.

“Hopefully I can find that happiness in whatever the next chapter is.”

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