Women’s first-team forward Destiney Toussaint dissects the winger position before delving into the future to predict what her career, Wolves Women and women’s football could look like in five years’ time.
Positional play
Did you always want to be a winger?
When I was younger, I didn’t really know where I was best suited, and when I started to take football more seriously, Rehanne Skinner, who ended up scouting me for Leicester, she played me as a centre-midfielder, so I started there and gradually found my way out to the wing where I could use my direct running more.
What is the best part of being a winger?
Being able to attack. I love a one-v-one and nine times out of 10 I’m going to take the defender on and try to get down the line and cross the ball in. If I can assist the nines then that’s my job done, and if I can get on the scoresheet as well then I’m doing my job.
What is the hardest part of being a winger?
Having to get up and down the pitch! You need a bit of an engine as you’re expected to be up in the box when you’re attacking, and you’re also expected to get back and help out your full-backs, so the hardest thing is having that fitness to be able to consistently be up and down the wing for the whole game.
What qualities are needed to be a winger?
You’ve got to be direct as a winger. You’ve got to be able to dribble and run with the ball and be able to put crosses in that are going to be nice and tasty for the forwards to finish off.
What do you work on most as a winger?
Occasionally we do break it down into units and do specific wide work, but it’s being able to practice the goalkeeper or the wide defenders getting that ball out to you quickly, literally one touch forward and then find a nine or get down the touchline and put a cross in.
What other position would you like to play?
I would like to have a cameo at centre-half. When I was at Coventry a few years ago, they put me at centre-half for a game and I stayed there for a few, but I actually enjoyed the battle. I enjoyed winning the ball, the aerial challenges, putting in strong tackles, but I got told off a couple of time for wanting to dribble the ball out of defence and go driving through the middle.
What is the hardest other position to play?
I’d say the eight. In midfield, you’ve always got to have that 360 awareness when you’re playing. The four is a little bit easier because you’re in front of the back four, you get it and play it forward, but the eight needs that all round game. Also, a special mention to keepers because you need to have a screw loose to play in goal!
Which other wingers do you watch and learn from?
There’s so many from the modern game, but back in the day when I was younger myself, I would look up the Rachel Yankeys, the Kelly Smiths and the Kaz Carney-type players.
In five years’ time…
Personal achievements
Hopefully I’ll be retired by then! But I hope that I can look back at my game and my career and be happy with what I was able to achieve and content that I was able to enjoy the years while I was playing the sport. I would also like to stay in the sport somehow and use my experiences to help the next generation of players coming through.
Wolves’ future
You would hope they’d be at the top of the game in the WSL. But realistically, at least in the Championship and I’m hoping that will happen this season. The end goal is always to be in the WSL at some point, but that depends on squad, it depends on finances, it depends on a lot of factors to get the club where it deserves to be, but I am hopeful we can get promoted as Wolves has the set-up and the potential to get there.
Hopes for the women’s game
Just keep moving in the right direction. Since the Euros, that was a huge boost and you’ve seen the numbers in attendance at the games rocket up, so it’s always nice to turn up to a stadium full of people rather than one with 20 people there – mostly your mum, dad and sister! I hope women and young girls can enjoy it and make a full career out of it, even if they’re not at the top level.
Changes to women’s football
The main thing is the finance in the game. In my generation a lot of female footballers have had to give up a lot to play the sport and we do it because we love it, but we all have bills to pay and jobs that we do alongside it, so I would like to see the professionalism of it progress a lot further between the leagues and hopefully get more money into women’s football in many ways, but mainly by getting more bums on seats at games.
Remembering the current Wolves team
I’d like to be remembered as the team which got Wolves into a professional league and the Championship. That is the goal of this season, to get into the Championship, and if I can be a part of that then it will be a great step for the club to progress further in the future.
