Former Lionesses captain Thomas recalls winning 'unofficial World Cup' of 1985

If the Lionesses beat Spain in Sydney today, Millie Bright will not be the first woman to lift a World Cup trophy with England — that honour belongs to Carol Thomas, who captained the world champions in 1985.

The 68-year-old was a true pioneer, playing as a schoolgirl among women twice her age in Hull’s local works league when women’s football was still banned by the FA, then becoming the first woman to get an FA coaching badge, and the first to reach 50 caps for England.

Then came her crowning glory, in Italy in 1985, when she captained England to success in the Mundialito, the forerunner of the Women’s World Cup that FIFA introduced in 1991. ‘It was called the “unofficial World Cup”, and we went to Italy and won it. We played Denmark, the USA and Italy, and to beat the Italians on their own turf in the final was a great achievement.’

But there was no ticker-tape parade, nor the homecoming ceremony in Trafalgar Square that greeted Sarina Wiegman’s team when they won the European Championship last summer. ‘We picked up the cup, had a few drinks, returned to England and went back to work,’ says Thomas with a smile.

Yet she does not begrudge the adulation nor the rewards that the likes of Alessia Russo, Chloe Kelly or Beth Mead receive.

The FA have belatedly recognised the achievements of players who went under the radar when women’s football was emerging from its 50-year ban, and now Thomas and her former team-mates are regularly invited to Lionesses games.

It is a far cry from the days when 11-year-old Thomas got the football bug after watching Bobby Moore lift the Jules Rimet trophy in 1966. Girls were not allowed to play football at school or in youth leagues, so she would enjoy kickabouts with her dad and brother Michael. She got to play for a local team, the British Oil and Cake Mills, in the unofficial works league. ‘I was only 11, playing against women twice my age because there were no age-groups in girls football.’

Playing either on the wing or at right-back, she came to the attention of Hull Brewery Ladies, and eventually the Hull and District side, Northern England and then the full England team in 1974.

She made her England debut against France at Plough Lane. ‘It was mostly family and friends, plus one man and his dog!’ she laughs. She soon became a regular and captain while still a teenager.

Thomas was made captain at 20 when England won their first tournament, the 1976 Home International series. England’s first game outside Europe was the 1981 Mundialito, in which they came third, and then they reached the final of the 1984 European Championship against Sweden. However, like Gareth Southgate’s men in 2021, they lost on penalties.

A year later she led England to the Mundialito, with four games played in seven days.

Thomas, then 30, retired from international football later that year. But she played on in club football well into her 50s, after a 43-year career. It was only last year that her record as England’s most successful women’s captain was overtaken by Leah Williamson.

She says the women’s game today is a world apart from the one she grew up in. ‘These Lionesses are role models for young girls, inspiring them to want to play,’ she says. But she is peeved that her generation’s achievements were largely forgotten, not least by the FA. ‘We thought we’d been forgotten about, because there was a misconception that women’s football only started here in 1992,’ she says.

When asked what changed that, her husband Alan butts in — only half-jokingly — to suggest it was her Twitter account @First_2_Fifty that changed things. ‘A few of us started posting bits of our history, our stories, and then we started to get more support from the FA.

‘I’m very proud to have represented my country, and captained my country. Most of all I’m proud to have been part of the generation that was a stepping stone for the success of the Lionesses now.’