Girls’s Nations League, Group A1: Scotland v Netherlands
Venue: Hampden Park, Glasgow Date: Tuesday, 25 February Kick-off: 19:30 GMT
Protection: Watch on BBC Scotland channel, iPlayer and BBC Sport web site plus comply with textual content updates on BBC Sport web site & app
Martha Thomas was recovering from harm when she obtained the message that will change her life.
On the time, she was a school senior in the USA finding out train science at Charlotte in North Carolina and present process rehabilitation from an anterior cruciate ligament harm.
”It may sound so random, however I truly obtained a LinkedIn message,” the 28-year-old striker recalled. “I had deliberate to place my identify into the NWSL draft, however after I did my knee, that fell via.
“There was a man attempting to recruit individuals with European passports who performed within the faculty system in America for Le Havre in France. So, having a European passport, I kind of flew up on his radar.
“They provided me an opportunity to go there and end my rehab after which enjoying a few months into the season. It was a extremely good alternative for me.”
Thomas spent most of her childhood rising up in South Florida, the daughter of a Scottish mom and English father, nevertheless it was in France when she started to suppose she may have a profession in soccer.
”I noticed the chance that there was to play whereas being paid, it simply escalated from there and I completely cherished it,” she stated. “I used to be like, I get to do that for a residing!
“I began enjoying and began actually having fun with myself and that is after I obtained picked up by West Ham. To go to one of many prime leagues in England from Division 2 in France was an enormous soar, nevertheless it was one I used to be actually excited for.”
Ideas of worldwide soccer had been nonetheless far off.
“I had actually low expectations for myself and simply needed to settle in,” she admitted. ”I used to be a no one in a method.
“I did not play for a nationwide crew – I got here from America. No-one actually knew who I used to be. I simply needed to get pleasure from myself and see the place it obtained me.”
It obtained her seen by Scotland head coach Shelley Kerr.
“I would performed for the US Beneath-23 crew, however when Shelley known as me in, I had simply missed that 2019 World Cup window,” Thomas defined.
“I believe I used to be on the first camp straight after that World Cup and, after that, it was kind of no wanting again and it did not really feel like a call for me to make.”
Thomas scored twice on her debut in a 3-0 win over Ukraine in March 2020 and has gone on to attain 21 objectives in 42 appearances for Scotland.
She has moved from West Ham to Manchester United after which on to Tottenham Hotspur, choosing up FA Cup runners-up medals with the latter two.
Nonetheless, qualifying for the finals of a serious event with Scotland could be a profession excessive.
”I’d be 29 or 30 at that time and that will be the top of my profession if we may get there – and it is positively what I am hoping that this crew can obtain and attempt in direction of,” she stated.
A profitable Nations League marketing campaign would assist that ambition and the aspect presently led by interim head coach Michael McArdle are already up towards it after dropping their opener in Austria, earlier than internet hosting the Netherlands on Tuesday.
”It helps you might have a greater likelihood of qualifying in case you keep in League A within the prime few positions – it simply makes that pathway even higher for qualifying,” Thomas added.
“It is what we wish. We need to play these prime groups and show ourselves.”
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