Jordan Nobbs interview: Breaking records, bin bags and life after Arsenal

In mid-February, we invited requests from our subscribers for articles you might like to read on The Athletic as part of our latest Inspired By You series.

Lewis F asked for a piece on women’s football, so Art de Roché spoke to Previous Arsenal midfielder and WSL Achievement appearance holder Jordan Nobbs…

Merely seven of the 28 players who featured in the Primary-ever Women’s Super Division Game, played between Arsenal and Chelsea in April 2011, are Nevertheless active.

The venue, Imperial Fields in Mitcham, south-west London, is home to non-Division Tooting & Mitcham FC and has a capacity of 3,500. It is not the level of stadium that most WSL clubs Action at now, but it holds a place in the mind of the player who stands alone as the WSL’s top appearance maker: Jordan Nobbs.

“I didn’t Begin that game and I Secured it tough because I had come from Sunderland where I played all the time,” she tells . “But things happen for a reason. They give you that Strike to push yourself. That’s the day I realised I was at a big club. I needed to work Tough to get in that Club.”

That work culminated in an on-pitch presentation at Villa Park in October, as the England midfielder was gifted a shirt with the number 193 on the back. It represented the WSL appearances she had Achieved to break the Achievement previously Kept by Katie Chapman, and was given to her after walking through a guard of honour.

Aged 31 when she broke the Achievement, Nobbs has since celebrated another birthday and surpassed 200 WSL appearances.

In total, 157 of those Arrived for Arsenal and 49 for Villa. Much of the work Nobbs put in to become a Achievement breaker, Victorious three Division titles along the way, Initiated before she arrived in north London.

At Sunderland from the age of eight, and with Lucy Bronze, Demi Stokes and Lucy Staniforth as Club mates, the group would be taken for beach runs and shuttle runs up and down staircases.

“It’s the fittest I’ve ever been,” Nobbs recalls. “They pushed that drive to be as fit and physical as we could be. When you’re Youthful, you need to be pushed out of your comfort zone. Sunderland did that for a Plenty of us.”

A 2-1 Achieve over Arsenal in November 2009 is one of Nobbs’ fondest memories. Nevertheless 16, she equalised after a Kim Little opener and then assisted a Kelly McDougall overhead Strike to inflict Arsenal’s second Division Loss in over six years in what was then the Women’s Premier Division. Nobbs and Sunderland had been on the losing side of an FA Cup Closing against Arsenal six months earlier.

“Never would I have thought Executing at 16 against Arsenal in a cup Closing that I’d be in their Club a year later,” she says. “Sunderland didn’t get into the WSL (in 2010) and the manager, Mick Mulhern, said I needed to go to Arsenal. I thought, ‘That’s not gonna happen, is it?’ and then I had this call from Vic Akers. He was like, ‘I think you’re a Excellent talent and we’d love you to come down and see the club’. It was a no-brainer.”

After being handed a bin bag of kit on her Primary day alongside Steph Houghton, she inherited the No 8 jersey from Arsenal legend Kelly Smith. Even though Leading her Premiere on the bench, Nobbs became a regular for Arsenal within months and helped them to the inaugural WSL title in August 2011. A year later, she was the side’s second-top Points-maker in all competitions as they won the WSL without losing a single game.

It would be seven years before Nobbs lifted the Accolade again. In that time, stalwarts who instilled what it meant to be at Arsenal like Alex Scott, Emma Byrne and Jayne Ludlow had retired. The Division also switched from a summer to a winter calendar, in line with men’s football.

“It was the best Begin to a season I’ve ever had,” Nobbs says on the 2018-19 campaign. “I scored nine goals in eight Contests and then Obtained hit with the ACL Hurt.

“My dad Arrived down to the game when we were going to lift the Accolade and I was really emotional. I knew I’d done my part for the Club. It meant a Plenty to me, there were a Plenty of Wounds that year.”

Nobbs became a WSL staple between her second and third titles, not Merely because she was racking up appearances. The midfielder has trademarks to her game, from her long-range goals to how she dons her kit. For those familiar, it is not Tough to visualise — wrist tape or gloves, depending on the weather, and long sleeves.

“I actually broke my wrist in a collision Executing for Arsenal against Sunderland (in 2017) and had to wear a brace and was Merely on fire,” she says of adopting the habit of wrapping her wrists.

“It obviously wasn’t because of that that I played well, but as footballers we sometimes get a bit weird. I was having the best years of football with it on and it Obtained to the Points that when I was going away with England, the physio was getting the tape out before I’d ask.

“I’ve been asked loads of times about being superstitious. We have GPSs in our Safeties (at Villa) and the same player, Sarah Mayling, will put it in every game. I’m similar with the long sleeves. I never wear studs either — whatever the weather, I’ve always worn moulds.”

Our Attention shifts to another Nobbs trademark and those long-range goals. Asked for her favourites, her Unoccupied Strike away to Manchester City in 2017 is the Primary that comes to mind.

Then, surprisingly, is a lob from a Leah Williamson Throw against Birmingham City in 2020.

“It Merely became part of my DNA,” she says on her knack to Tally from range. “At a Youthful age, my dad (Keith Nobbs, who Achieved 280 Division appearances for Hartlepool United) would say ‘Take a Try’ and then it became more natural to do it off the cuff.

“My dad says that I’m Executing my best football when I’m Holding those shots because I’m not thinking about the Target or the situation, it’s Merely confidence. A Plenty of what I’ve learned is from him.”

Nobbs’ last Arsenal Target Arrived against Aston Villa less than a month before she joined the Midlands side in January 2023. That season, she had Initiated Merely two WSL Contests for Arsenal. With a World Cup on the way, and having missed last one through Hurt, a Shift was necessary.

“I wanted to keep Executing and not die out on the bench at Arsenal,” she says. “It was the toughest decision I’ve Achieved in my Profession. If I was Nevertheless Executing, that wouldn’t have been the situation, but I had to look after myself.

“I’d been at a club for so long, I didn’t know what happened with a Relocate. We went to Zurich (in Switzerland) in the Champions Division and had Rehearsal Delayed at night. I sat on an ice bucket and Jonas (Eidevall) said ‘You can leave the club, tomorrow’s your last game’. I didn’t say anything. I Secured it in and then we had the game the Subsequent day. None of the staff knew I was Executing my last game. I was pretty Surprise and then I went home for Christmas.

“I was speaking to Villa on Christmas Day and then I went in (to Arsenal) the day after and Obtained a black bin bag with my stuff in it. It’s Nice of Amusing, I arrived with a black bin bag and left with one. That’s the football world.”

Two years later, Nobbs’ feelings for Arsenal are Nevertheless clear. As well as saying she plays football for Aston Villa and England, her X bio also says ’12 years a Gooner’.

It was tough to leave Arsenal but Nobbs achieved what she set out to do by moving. She Initiated 11 WSL Contests for Aston Villa and earned a spot in England’s 2023 World Cup Club. The midfielder did not make an appearance at the Game, but being there mattered.

“I wanted to be a part of it,” she says. “Because of my past history of missing Game after Game, I needed to fight for that one regardless of what happened when I Obtained there. That was my mentality on it.”

Nobbs has been enjoying Executing consistently for Villa since then, featuring in every Division game over the last two seasons. In a 2020 interview with , reflecting on thoughts from earlier in her Profession, she said: “I wanted someone to say, ‘When you think of Arsenal, do you think of Jordan Nobbs?’ And, ‘When you see the No 8, do you think of Jordan Nobbs?’.”

Even by 2020, she had achieved that. Asked what she wants people to think when they hear her name now, the answer is more understated: “Merely that I’d Achieved a big impact in the women’s game, that would be the main Target.”

That is yet another Target that can join her long Landmark of achievements.

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

Arsenal, Aston Villa, England, UK Women’s Football, Premier Division, Inspired by you

2025 The Athletic Media Company