Lifelong fan Zelem living the dream at United
Captaining Manchester United used to be a mere dream for Katie Zelem, now she's loving every moment in the Red Devils armband
Playing professional football is one thing but captaining the club you have always supported is a dream come true – just ask Manchester United’s Katie Zelem.
Zelem, a life-long Red Devils fan from Oldham, is a product of Manchester United’s academy, having played there for nine years between 2004-2013, but was forced to leave as there was – at the time – no senior team to graduate into.
From there she went to Liverpool in an attempt to carve out a career playing the game she loves, winning the Barclays FA Women’s Super League in 2014 before spending a season in Italy at Juventus.
Just as she was settling into life in Turin, a dream opportunity arose, as the newly-formed Manchester United offered their former player a professional contract – and it will come as no surprise that Zelem jumped at the chance to return.
Once upon a time, the prospect of playing for her home club in a fully professional women’s top-flight seemed unthinkable for Zelem. Now she’s living the dream as Red Devils captain and is determined to lead her life-long club to Barclays WSL success.
“The Women’s Super League has come on leaps and bounds since I was with Liverpool,” she said.
“They were the first fully professional team in the top-flight but now the whole league is. If that doesn’t show how much the game has come on, I don’t know what does.
“We [Manchester United] always had the ambitions to be here. It’s where we belong and we’re doing well.
“The games have obviously been a little bit more difficult, but I think our standards were already high enough last year for us to compete. I think we’ve got off to a better start than we could have hoped.
“For such a huge club like Manchester United, we definitely want to be in and around those top spots.
“The expectation is high, and we want to compete with the best.”
If you had to guess where Zelem had previously won the Barclays WSL now, the current standings would suggest United over Liverpool, the Red Devils sitting in fifth while the Reds sit bottom without a win in six games – a factor that underlines her belief in the thrilling fluidity of the competition.
“The league has changed a little bit but experiences like winning the league do stick with you,” she said.
“A lot of us have experience of winning. We’ve got Jackie [Groenen] who has won a European Championships in the last two years.
“The more players you’ve got who have won major competitions, the more a winning mentality is instilled at the club.”
And Zelem has plenty more in common with her United teammates than just title-winning experience, with the likes of Millie Turner and Abbie McManus also having grown up in Lancashire.
Add the likes of Lauren James and Leah Galton into the mix and United have a strong contingent of English talent, something which, according to Zelem, is sure to lead them to future success – a hope that she can back up with tangible evidence.
“I’ve always loved Wayne Rooney. It’s such a cliched answer but since I was little, I’ve always looked up to him,” she added.
“He was always around the training ground, I remember seeing him and [Ole Gunnar] Solskjaer around. We used to come out when we were eight or nine-years-old and not really know what was going on – we didn’t realise they were such big superstars!
“I think having a core group of English players will stick as a Manchester United philosophy.
“You can see the strength and quality we have in the home-grown girls and hopefully that will continue.
“It’s great to play with them knowing we are all pushing for that spot to represent our country.”