Fresh from a morning out on the training pitch, Alessia Russo sports a dewy glow as she sits down on a sofa at Arsenal’s London Colney complex and begins reflecting on her first season in north London.
“It’s gone so quick,” she says. “I was saying to my mum and dad the other day how fast it’s gone. A lot has happened in the past year but it’s been great. I’ve loved it.
“I’ve always spoken about throwing yourself into something new and getting out of your comfort zone and just trying different things. This past year I’ve learnt loads about myself, on the pitch, off the pitch.”
Russo, whose memorable backheel during England’s victorious 2022 European Championship campaign made her a cult hero, has been an influential addition to Arsenal’s attack since joining from Manchester United last summer. She hit the ground running in her first season, averaging nearly a goal every two games, while settling into life in St Albans, where she regularly frequents the local Wagamama.
“It’s my favourite,” she says of the popular restaurant chain specialising in Japanese cuisine. “I get the same thing every time I go there – edamame and chilli squid with a chicken katsu but I get amai sauce instead of curry sauce. I just love it – rice, chicken, salad. I love sushi as well. I love going out for dinner; I like being with people at a dinner table.”
With her Italian ancestry – Russo has a Sicilian grandfather from Aragona – food and family were an important part of her upbringing. She has happy memories of sitting around the dinner table on family holidays, chatting into the long summer nights.
Yet for someone who is a self-confessed “foodie”, Russo admits her relationship with food has not always been straightforward. During the Covid-19 lockdown she found herself training on her own and began consciously limiting her food intake to avoid putting on excess weight while training opportunities were limited.
She signed for United in September 2020 but a month into what would be a three-year stint at the club she tore her hamstring so badly that the muscle was only just attached to the bone. To this day, she believes her restrictive eating habits played a part in the season-ending injury and a host of other muscular problems that followed during her first months at the club.
“I went on a bit of a negative food cycle and I wasn’t eating enough,” reflects Russo. “I was eating lots of healthy food but not enough of it. Then after lockdown I signed for United and broke down about a month or so in. I couldn’t get fit for about a year. There was lots to it, but I think part of the original injury was maybe because I wasn’t strong enough. I was too skinny at the time. I lost too much weight and a lot of it was muscle.”
‘How you feel is ultimately what’s so important’
Russo’s unhealthy habits and body image struggles are not out of the ordinary given the scale of the issue in the women’s game. According to a study published last June by Fifpro, the players’ global union, one in five women’s players experienced disordered eating over a 12-month period. It is a topic that has received more attention in recent years in light of the Women’s Super League’s (WSL) soaring profile, with increased broadcast and social media exposure leading to greater pressures on players.
“It’s tough, you’re in the spotlight as an athlete and people love to scrutinise you, whether it’s about your performance or what you look like,” adds Russo, who insists her relationship with food and her body has never been better.
“It can be hard at times, but all that matters to me now is that I’m fit for as many games as I can be, I feel strong, in the gym I feel good. In training I feel good. As long as I’m eating the right foods and enough of it, that’s all that matters. Looks come after that – how you feel is ultimately what’s so important.”
There is an air of maturity about this softly spoken 25-year-old which can be traced to the three years she spent during her formative student days in the United States. Russo honed her game at the North Carolina Tar Heels while studying for a degree in sport and exercise science. In previous interviews she has credited the US college system for not only moulding her into more of a resilient and rounded athlete, but priming her for the rigours of professionalism in the WSL, especially at a club as ambitious as Arsenal.
The club recorded two sell-outs and three league attendance records across six women’s matches at the 60,704-capacity Emirates Stadium last season. The Emirates will become the main home for the women’s team for the 2024-25 campaign and host three group games in the Women’s Champions League, if Arsenal make it through their two-legged, second-round qualifying tie against Swedish team Hacken FC.
‘We always want to make time for the fans’
It is a bold aim which continues to cement Arsenal’s legacy in the women’s game. While the club averaged a home crowd of 29,999 last season across the Emirates and Meadow Park, the longstanding ground of the women’s team, spectator numbers at Everton and West Ham were closer to the 2,000 mark. Does Russo think other clubs should be more proactive when it comes to getting bums on seats?
“That’s just part of the league and part of the growth,” she says, diplomatically. “People are at different stages. I think it’s great to have the likes of Arsenal leading the way and paving the way for women’s football, not only in England but worldwide, too.”
As the club who attracted the largest crowd numbers across the league last season, Arsenal surely have licence to stop players from signing autographs and selfies at matches – a move which their rivals Chelsea recently announced amid growing concerns over player welfare at their 4,850-capacity Kingsmeadow ground.
An increasing number of big names, including Mary Earps, BBC Sports Personality of the Year winner, have spoken about the challenge of satisfying fans’ growing demands in the women’s game, which has always thrived on the close bond built between players and spectators.
“It’s tough,” admits Russo. “Obviously one of the best things about women’s football and the growth of the past few years is the connections and the stories that we have with the fans. There was one point where fans would not only get to watch the game but have selfies and signed photos pretty much every game they would come to.
“As players, we always want to make time for the fans because they’ve been there from the start and they’ve helped grow our game. I hope the fans know how much they mean to players, but at the same time it is hard for us to thank everyone and see everyone. Sometimes it is challenging, especially when we have midweek games and we have to almost start our recovery process as soon as the game is finished.”
‘We have massive ambitions as a team’
Russo has certainly become a fan favourite in north London, where this season she will form part of a new Arsenal attack bolstered by the signing of Spain World Cup winner Mariona Caldentey. “She’s really nice. Very relaxed, typical Spanish,” says Russo.
The former Barcelona striker was brought in to fill the void left by Vivianne Miedema, the all-time leading WSL goalscorer who left for Manchester City over the summer.
With 47 major trophies, Arsenal are the most successful club in the women’s game, but silverware has been harder to come by in recent years. Securing the League Cup for a second season in a row in March was viewed as a success, but the team fell adrift in the title race to finish third.
“I think we’d all say that last year was a bit of a disappointing season,” says Russo. “We know we have so much more to give as players. We want to go on and compete in every competition this year as far as we can and win trophies. That’s what this club is about. Every player here wants to win trophies and our standards are sky-high. We have massive ambitions as a team. When you step through the door and become an Arsenal player that’s the bar. The bar is really high.”
At a time when players have voiced concerns over burnout with an increasingly crowded playing schedule, does Russo fear the calendar is becoming too congested? “It’s so hard because I just said we want to compete in every competition,” she says. “When you do get time off it’s so important to make the most of it. I’ve struggled with that in the past, making the most of your time off. There’s a lot of responsibility for us as players to look after ourselves and our bodies. We’re not machines at the same time, so it’s about finding a balance.”
Away from the pitch, Russo spends much of her downtime watching movies. That famed backheel against Sweden during the Euros two summers ago, which was voted goal of the tournament, was also perfectly captured on film. “I’ve not watched it for ages,” says Russo, smiling at the memory. “I don’t know where it came from, it was just instinct. Hopefully people aren’t expecting it again, I don’t know if I can do it again!”
With a player of Russo’s quality, it would be unwise to rule that out.