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 former Arsenal midfielder and WSL record appearance holder Jordan Nobbs…
Just seven of the 28 players who featured in the first-ever Women's Super League match, played between Arsenal and Chelsea in April 2011, are still active.
The venue, Imperial Fields in Mitcham, south-west London, is home to non-League Tooting & Mitcham FC and has a capacity of 3,500. It is not the level of stadium that most WSL clubs play 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.
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'I didn't start that game and I found it tough because I had come from Sunderland where I played all the time,' she tells The Athletic. 'But things happen for a reason. They give you that kick to push yourself. That's the day I realised I was at a big club. I needed to work hard to get in that squad.'
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 made to break the record previously held by Katie Chapman, and was given to her after walking through a guard of honour.
Aged 31 when she broke the record, Nobbs has since celebrated another birthday and surpassed 200 WSL appearances.
In total, 157 of those came for Arsenal and 49 for Villa. Much of the work Nobbs put in to become a record breaker, winning three league titles along the way, started before she arrived in north London.
At Sunderland from the age of eight, and with Lucy Bronze, Demi Stokes and Lucy Staniforth as team 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 young, you need to be pushed out of your comfort zone. Sunderland did that for a lot of us.'
A 2-1 win over Arsenal in November 2009 is one of Nobbs' fondest memories. Still 16, she equalised after a Kim Little opener and then assisted a Kelly McDougall overhead kick to inflict Arsenal's second league defeat in over six years in what was then the Women's Premier League. Nobbs and Sunderland had been on the losing side of an FA Cup final against Arsenal six months earlier.
'Never would I have thought playing at 16 against Arsenal in a cup final that I'd be in their team 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 good talent and we'd love you to come down and see the club'. It was a no-brainer.'
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After being handed a bin bag of kit on her first day alongside Steph Houghton, she inherited the No 8 jersey from Arsenal legend Kelly Smith. Despite starting her debut 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 scorer in all competitions as they won the WSL without losing a single game.
It would be seven years before Nobbs lifted the trophy 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 league also switched from a summer to a winter calendar, in line with men's football.
'It was the best start to a season I've ever had,' Nobbs says on the 2018-19 campaign. 'I scored nine goals in eight games and then got hit with the ACL injury.
'My dad came down to the game when we were going to lift the trophy and I was really emotional. I knew I'd done my part for the team. It meant a lot to me, there were a lot of injuries that year.'
Nobbs became a WSL staple between her second and third titles, not just 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 hard to visualise — wrist tape or gloves, depending on the weather, and long sleeves.
'I actually broke my wrist in a collision playing for Arsenal against Sunderland (in 2017) and had to wear a brace and was just 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 got to the point that when I was going away with England, the physio was getting the tape out before I'd ask.
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'I've been asked loads of times about being superstitious. We have GPSs in our backs (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 focus shifts to another Nobbs trademark and those long-range goals. Asked for her favourites, her free kick away to Manchester City in 2017 is the first that comes to mind.
Then, surprisingly, is a lob from a Leah Williamson pass against Birmingham City in 2020.
'It just became part of my DNA,' she says on her knack to score from range. 'At a young age, my dad (Keith Nobbs, who made 280 league appearances for Hartlepool United) would say 'Take a shot' and then it became more natural to do it off the cuff.
'My dad says that I'm playing my best football when I'm taking those shots because I'm not thinking about the goal or the situation, it's just confidence. A lot of what I've learned is from him.'
Nobbs' last Arsenal goal came against Aston Villa less than a month before she joined the Midlands side in January 2023. That season, she had started just two WSL games for Arsenal. With a World Cup on the way, and having missed last one through injury, a move was necessary.
'I wanted to keep playing and not die out on the bench at Arsenal,' she says. 'It was the toughest decision I've made in my career. If I was still playing, 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 transfer. We went to Zurich (in Switzerland) in the Champions League and had training late 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 took it in and then we had the game the next day. None of the staff knew I was playing my last game. I was pretty upset and then I went home for Christmas.
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'I was speaking to Villa on Christmas Day and then I went in (to Arsenal) the day after and got a black bin bag with my stuff in it. It's kind of funny, I arrived with a black bin bag and left with one. That's the football world.'
Two years later, Nobbs' feelings for Arsenal are still 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 started 11 WSL games for Aston Villa and earned a spot in England's 2023 World Cup squad. The midfielder did not make an appearance at the tournament, but being there mattered.
'I wanted to be a part of it,' she says. 'Because of my past history of missing tournament after tournament, I needed to fight for that one regardless of what happened when I got there. That was my mentality on it.'
Nobbs has been enjoying playing consistently for Villa since then, featuring in every league game over the last two seasons. In a 2020 interview with The Athletic, reflecting on thoughts from earlier in her career, 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: 'Just that I'd made a big impact in the women's game, that would be the main goal.'
That is yet another goal that can join her long list of achievements.
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