Naomi Layzell puffs out her cheeks and exhales slowly. For the first time in 28 minutes of conversation, the Manchester City defender’s smile vanishes.
“I kept thinking, ‘I just tarnished one of the best games of my life’,” she says. “I kept thinking, ‘Why does this happen?’”
Layzell is speaking to The Athletic from her home in Manchester about an evening in early October that will be a default talking point for the rest of the England youth international’s life: the night the relatively unknown 20-year-old cut a Champions League group-stage match against Barcelona in her image.
The reigning European champions’ starting XI for the game included two-time Ballon d’Or winners Aitana Bonmati and Alexia Putellas, England midfielder Keira Walsh, Norway winger Caroline Graham Hansen, Sweden wing-back Fridolina Rolfo and Spain centre-back Mapi Leon.
But it was Layzell — signed in the summer from Bristol City after their relegation out of the Women’s Super League and operating at right-back instead of her usual position in central defence — who scored City’s first goal, set up Khadija Shaw for the second and shackled Barcelona’s left side to give the home team a deserved 2-0 win.
It was all the more impressive considering, before that night, Layzell had made only one Champions League appearance and never scored a senior goal for club or country
Layzell tackles Barca’s Bonmati (James Gill – Danehouse/Getty Images)
All of which contributed to making the evening’s ending so cruel: Layzell hobbling off the pitch at full time with her ankle throbbing. City manager Gareth Taylor insisted the club’s medical staff were “positive” regarding the injury. But two months later, Layzell is only now returning to training. Her competitive comeback is not expected until mid-January.
“I was sat next to Gracie (Prior, City’s 20-year-old midfielder who was an unused substitute that night) when Gareth announced the team,” Layzell says. “She was looking at me, stunned. I was looking at her, stunned. There are not many games where you get to go up against players who have won the Ballon d’Or… twice.”
And have a goal involvement against them, The Athletic points out. Twice.
“Yeah, well…” Layzell laughs, briefly looking away as she tucks a loose strand of hair behind her ear. “Yeah.”
The exchange is a glimpse into Layzell as she walks The Athletic through her journey from a small village in Gloucestershire, just north of Bristol in the west of England, with no footballing pathway, to trialling at Bristol City at 16 years old, to join Manchester City for a six-figure sum. She is an open book, the vestiges of a once “shy” little girl peaking through periodically, before being gobbled up by a fierce but humble competitor.
Football was always Layzell’s passion. A sport also played by her brother and father, it ran in the family. At her primary school, which taught just “60 to 70 kids”, breaks were spent playing the game, with teams designated oldest and youngest. A five-year-old Layzell quickly learned how to adapt to facing bigger and better players.
A local under-nines boys’ team became her next stomping ground. Yet, by 11 years old, Layzell felt she had “outgrown” them, a sensation that would become familiar throughout her career. She accepted an invitation to join local EFL club Cheltenham Town’s boys’ development programme to better herself, while continuing to play for a Sunday side in the area. That she was the only girl in both those teams did not faze her.
“Boys at that age, they’d think, ‘I’m not going to pass to her, she’s probably rubbish’,” says Layzell. “But playing in the local leagues, people knew who I was. I used to be bigger than most of the boys in my team. When they got bigger and hit puberty, I had to figure out how to play against them. I couldn’t just body them anymore, because they were bigger than me. I had to play quicker.”
Layzell views those years as hugely formative, albeit out of necessity. Infrastructure for girls’ football in that part of England was “poor”, and the pathways to the game’s elite levels were almost non-existent. One Sunday, after a match with her boys’ team, she was asked to put on the shirt of FC Highnam, a local girls’ club, and play her second game of the day.
“I scored six goals… as a defensive midfielder. (Women’s football) wasn’t enough of a challenge at the time,” she says. “That’s changing now, but when I was growing up, I didn’t think I was going to play football professionally because I couldn’t see that. Instead, my question was, ‘How many times a week can I play? How good can I be?’. My personality is to be the best. I want to be better than my siblings. I want to score the highest test scores in class. I want to get better, always.”
Layzell’s exploits in the local boys’ leagues earned her a trial with Gloucestershire County Girls, an early development pathway organised through England’s Football Association (FA). In 2020, as seasons were curtailed by the pandemic, the county side put her name forward to train with Bristol City, then in the Women’s Super League. Layzell, who was 16 and had just finished her GCSE exams at school, began as a training player to help prepare the more senior members of the squad during pre-season.
“We were doing (Covid-19) tests every week before we trained, then isolating and wearing masks,” Layzell remembers. “And I was so shy at the time. I probably didn’t speak to any of the girls! But at the end of pre-season, (Bristol City’s manager at the time) Tanya Oxtoby said they wanted me to continue training and playing. Immediately I was like, ‘Me? Really? No way. I’m going to be playing in a team that’s playing in the WSL?’”
Layzell’s first year at Bristol City was full of challenges. Pandemic protocols meant four games were postponed due to a lack of players, while a thin squad was also regularly depleted through injury. Layzell, still only 16, was thrust into top-flight football as City fought for WSL survival.
“I remember one game, in the November, we played (London side) Crystal Palace away on a Thursday night in the League Cup,” she says. “We got back to Bristol at about 2am, then had to travel to Manchester on the Saturday morning to play City at 12:30pm. Half our team had Covid. I played 90 minutes against Palace. I got to the bus and was told I was starting (on the Saturday) because we didn’t have enough positive (Covid-19) tests to cancel the game without a points deduction. I thought, ‘This is mental’, but those were the struggles. There were so many behind the scenes.”
Bristol City claimed just two WSL wins that season, neither of which arrived before the January. (The campaign was shelved in the March because of the pandemic, with City having played 14 of the 22 scheduled matches, and eventually called off altogether). The pressure weighed heavy on Layzell. Against Aston Villa in the December of the following season, she was substituted near the end, with City 4-0 down.
“I was crying, because I thought it was my fault,” she says. “The assistant (Loren Dykes) came up to me and was like, ‘Why are you upset? You’re doing so well. You have this huge career ahead of you. Just think about how many opportunities you’re going to learn from this season’.”
That January, Oxtoby departed on maternity leave, with Matt Beard, a two-time WSL title winner as Liverpool manager who had left West Ham United’s women’s team a couple of months earlier, appointed as caretaker manager.
Because Layzell was not a full-time player (she was still playing under-18s boys’ football with Cheltenham Town to get more game time) and completing her A-Levels, Beard dropped her from the squad, citing a need to train better. Layzell pledged to do so, and arranged to have her school lessons recorded. Her efforts did not stop Bristol City from finishing bottom and dropping out of the WSL at season’s end, though.
“In a selfish way, I thought, ‘If I take what I can from the experiences’. It was tough for the team, but it was quite an invaluable season in the formation of the player and who I am,” she says.
Player turnover following relegation meant that Layzell, despite being just 17, became a key figure under new manager Lauren Smith, after Oxtoby stepped down permanently in the August.
In March 2022, she signed her first professional contract with Bristol City, and helped them return to the WSL just over a year later. However, another last-placed relegation season awaited them, and Layzell felt the familiar sensation of outgrowing a space.
Layzell has been called up to train with England this year (Naomi Baker – The FA/The FA via Getty Images)
“I wanted to find a new challenge,” she says. “I had a few options, but I couldn’t turn down going to one of the best clubs in the world that just got pipped to the post for the league. And whenever I’d played against them,” she smiles and shakes her head, “it’s been a nightmare.” (In Layzell’s seven meetings with Manchester City, Bristol City lost all of them by an aggregate score of 37 goals to three.)
Despite the club-record fee Bristol City received for her departure, Layzell anticipated a debut year of education watching from the bench in Manchester.
Instead, Taylor approached her about playing right-back, an area where he was lacking cover: “He said it might not be natural, but I’d pick it up because I listen, I learn.” Against Paris FC in the second leg of September’s Champions League qualifier, Layzell vindicated her manager’s faith, then again against Brighton & Hove Albion in the WSL that weekend, then Barcelona 10 days later.
“When I arrived, I was being honest with myself that I’m not going to get it right every time,” Layzell says. When it’s pointed out to her that she has actually got a lot right, she laughs sheepishly.
“I try not to think too much about the outside media and what people are saying. Unless the game stops and someone shouts my name, I’m not hugely distracted by what’s going around. Maybe if someone was booing every time I got the ball, I’d do a bit more,” she jokes.
“But they always say don’t get too high with the highs and don’t get too low with the lows. Hopefully, those opportunities will come up again, I can break back into the squad, and I’ll let the football do the talking.”
(Top photo: Martin Rickett/PA Images via Getty Images)
