Tracey reckons she’s a better footballer than former Manchester United, Everton and England midfielder Phil. In turn, Phil thinks he’d make a superb centre on the netball court.
Sport is sport for these two. Growing up, there was never ‘men’s sport’ or ‘women’s sport’ in the Neville family home – but Tracey, of course, did later learn they were seen as different entities.
“I never noticed a difference in our house because mum and dad created opportunities for us,” she says.
“I only started to notice a difference when I was about 14 – when Phil and Gary were getting contracts at Manchester United and I was still doing my GCSEs, my A-levels.”
When Phil was considering the Lionesses job, he spoke to Tracey about it and she was the driving force behind him going for it.
He was appointed in January 2018 and faced criticism for his lack of experience in the women’s game.
“My argument is that I have grown up with a female elite athlete and have first-hand experience of what female athletes have gone through to sacrifice themselves, the challenges they’ve had, so I thought I was in a really good position,” he says.
It has, however, still proved a learning curve.
“At Everton and United we just locked ourselves away behind the walls of the training ground and were probably insular in terms of our outlook on everything,” Phil adds.
“We brought [England hockey captain and Olympic gold medallist] Alex Danson in and she was unbelievable, and the stories she told inspired my players.
“Then Tracey and I had been talking about doing something fun between netball and football. The minute they walked in, my players looked up to these netball players like they were gods because they had won the gold medal.”
