World Cup star Claire Emslie backs Penicuik pitch campaign

Claire Emslie hopes her World Cup exploits will help boost attempts to resurface her old astro pitch in Penicuik. Pic: Lorraine Hill

The winger, who found the net in Scotland’s 2-1 defeat to England in Nice, has travelled the world to play the game but there’s a sanctuary that the 25-year-old holds closer to her heart than anywhere else, a place she retreats to at every opportunity to travel back to the time when she was a wide-eyed little girl learning to love life with a ball at her feet.

Every once in a while, you might just catch Emslie at her local pitch near Penicuik High School, honing her close control with the same cherished set of footballs she received as a gift one Christmas morning.

And now a World Cup star, the Scotland ace, whose team take on Argentina in their final group-stage game in Paris tonight (kick-off 8pm), is hoping to use her profile to give back to the community asset that helped make her the player she is today.

Emslie came off the bench in Scotland's last match against Japan. Pic: Lorraine Hill

“As a little kid, I practised a lot on my own, hours and hours down at the local astro,” said Emslie, who won both the SSE Women’s FA Cup and the FA Women’s League Cup with Manchester City last season.

“One Christmas, me and my brother Rory got ten Nike footballs, which we were buzzing about. We’d go down there and practise, repetition after repetition, as often as we could. I’ve still got those balls now, about 15 years later.

“Even now, when I’m home, I go back to the astro and practise like when I was little. I did it before going to Hibs, when I was at Bristol [City], when I was at [Manchester] City, and it’s my special place. It keeps pulling me back.

“That park has been such a big part of me being successful and I love it.

“What’s even better is that when I was nine or ten years old, I’d be the only girl but now there’s loads and they’ll come and ask for pictures – they know I used to play there as a kid and if that’s inspired them, then that’s fantastic.

“It’s actually a terrible surface these days and the community are petitioning [Midlothian Council] to get it relaid, so I’m working with Penicuik Athletic to get that done.

“If being here at the World Cup can help influence that, I’d have achieved one of my most important goals.”

If it isn’t impressive enough that Emslie has somehow managed to keep the majority of those beloved balls intact to this day, she also recruited the family dog into her Penicuik routine.

“Cassie’s 12, a chocolate lab, and one of my favourite things about her is that when she was a puppy, I taught her to be a goalkeeper,” said the former Hibs Ladies player.

“There were these little goals at Penicuik and I’d get her to lie in the middle of them and to stay while I walked backwards to the penalty spot. I’d shoot and she’d spring up to try and save it.

“Even now, whenever I come home, she goes straight to the back garden and gets a ball so we can play penalties.

“I miss her when we’re away. My mum [Anna] dresses her up in Scotland kits for the games – and, yes, I FaceTime her!”

Next month, Emslie will complete her dream move to the Orlando Pride, three years after graduating from Florida Atlantic University.

Studying and playing Stateside harshly cost her a place in Anna Signeul’s Scotland squad for the 2017 European Championship but taking stock from her team’s Paris training base, she has no regrets.

“I wouldn’t change it. I followed my gut and it was the right thing to do,” said Emslie, who will play alongside icons Alex Morgan and Marta at Orlando.

“Whatever the reasons, it was tough to sit out the Euros – I was gutted, but when I saw Caroline Weir and Chloe Arthur there, two of my best mates, I was so determined that next time, I’d be with them, whatever it took.”

• SSE, the energy behind Scottish women’s and girls’ football. Official partner of the Scotland Women’s International team and proud sponsor of the SSE Soccer Centres and the SSE Scottish Women’s Cup.