Starring Karen Carney: ‘I generally lack self-confidence – however I’ve by no means given up

This weekend is the semi-final of Strictly Come Dancing 2025, and even attending to that time is a ‘dream come true’ for Karen Carney.

The previous Arsenal and England footballer, 38 – who was capped 144 occasions for her nation – watched Strictly for years, all the time hoping however by no means figuring out if she would in the future be allowed to talk for herself.

‘I dreamed of being on Strictly and I assumed it will by no means come true. I’ve watched this competitors for thus a few years and beloved it, and I really feel gifted and honored to take part in it,” she tells Metro.

In week one, any doubts that Karen can be a fierce competitor have been put to relaxation when she and dance associate Carlos Gu scored 31 and topped the leaderboard.

Nonetheless, the early rounds offered issues because it took till Halloween week for them to interrupt the 30-point barrier once more.

Their Peaky Blinders-inspired Argentine tango that evening, says Karen, was a key second on the best way to the semi-finals, and she or he has “actually attacked ever since.”

Earlier than Karen’s good Halloween dance – which scored her 38 factors from the judges – audiences may need thought footballers had struggled on Strictly previously.

England stars Paul Merson, Tony Adams and David James have all failed to succeed in Blackpool, whereas Alex Scott’s fifth-place end in 2018 stays one of the best efficiency by a former footballer.

Nonetheless, issues about what her career may imply for her fortune have been far at the back of Karen’s thoughts.

‘I had no concept that footballers on Strictly did not carry out in addition to different professions. Perhaps I used to be fairly naive,” she admits, laughing. ‘However I have not thought of footballers and the way far they’ve come within the league as a result of everybody is basically completely different. I simply give attention to myself.”

If Karen makes the ultimate, she would be the first Strictly finalist from the sporting world since 2006 winner, former cricketer Mark Ramprakash, and England rugby star Michael Dawson, who got here runner-up that yr.

Former Arsenal, Birmingham Metropolis and Chelsea star Karen has performed in quite a few main finals, successful 5 FA Cups, three WSL titles, a League Cup and a Champions League. Did her preparation for the soccer grand finals this week, in the course of the enterprise finish of the Strictly season, assist?

“I truly suppose making ready for giant soccer finals and large Strictly nights could be very completely different,” she explains.

‘I’ve skilled for all of it my life with soccer. I knew how to make things better, I knew what was coming, and I used to be skilled to do it since I used to be eight years outdated. Strictly could be very unknown and outdoors my consolation zone.’

She continues: ‘However what soccer has taught me is to benefit from the second. You may get so entrenched in it that you just lose the enjoyable component, particularly if it is your job.’

On the soccer area, Karen stated she was ‘introverted’, whereas gamers had to have the ability to present their ‘full character’. However on Strictly she does not really feel like she’s being held again.

‘There have been moments in my profession when I’ve been humiliated: you are feeling assured, however then you might be unexpectedly eradicated from a serious event. I simply must do my absolute best. If it isn’t sufficient, I nonetheless know I did all the things I may.’

When the prospect of a cup remaining looms, footballers are sometimes requested whether or not they ‘permit themselves’ to suppose a couple of match forward. Karen responded to that query in true soccer trend: ‘I simply wish to carry out in addition to I can each Saturday. That has been mine and Carlos’ objective from week one.”

Regardless of impressing followers week after week along with her energetic routines, Karen reveals she is feeling ‘fairly drained’ at this stage. Who would not be?

‘If I used to be as match as everybody thinks, I might nonetheless be taking part in, would not I? I am a fairly damaged ex-footballer if I am brutally sincere. Each dance we do, Carlos and I maintain joking that it offers you one other muscle that claims, “Hello!”

Karen was a pioneer from the beginning of her profession and can be remembered as a pioneer of girls’s soccer in England. She – together with Alex Scott, Ellen White, Steph Houghton, Jill Scott and numerous others – laid a stable basis for the way forward for the game throughout a interval when it was taken far much less significantly than it ought to have been.

After retiring from the skilled sport, Karen moved into TV punditry – one other male-dominated enviornment that may have an unforgiving viewers. Karen was the goal of on-line abuse in January 2021 and deleted her Twitter account after Leeds United’s official web page reacted poorly to her evaluation of the Yorkshire membership’s efficiency that season.

Regardless of leaving social media behind, Karen instantly returned to TV protection of the Premier League and Champions League, and has since remained an everyday face on ITV and TNT Sports activities. What does it take to bounce again after such an expertise?

“Carlos would admit that I generally lack confidence and self-confidence, however I’ve by no means given up. I’ve all the time had family and friends round me when issues get powerful, and I all the time get again up. However that applies not solely to soccer, but additionally to my life and training,” she says.

‘My father and mom have been working class. Some individuals name that resilience, however we simply maintain going. They instilled in me a piece ethic – it was crucial for me and my siblings to work onerous. I believe I did that.’

She takes her mom’s classes very significantly: “I’ve all the time needed to do the issues I really like, and my mom stated, ‘If you need them that a lot, you are going to work onerous for them.'”

In the case of working onerous for Strictly, Karen says the opposite contestants – who she describes as ‘teammates’ – have made each step of the journey that little bit simpler as a result of they’ve ‘a lot respect for one another’.

‘We actually help one another. We’re out of our consolation zone, so we’d like individuals round us. The forged for 2025 was unimaginable. They’re so proficient, so variety, and I loved attending to know them. I might love to do an enormous social gathering when it is throughout.’

The Strictly Come Dancing outcomes air tonight at 7.45pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.

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