The Champions League has always had a special significance for Katie Zelem who, as a fanatical young Manchester United fan, took her place in the centre-circle and waved the Uefa banner while the anthem blared over the Old Trafford speakers.
Now club captain, Zelem is four games away from leading United into the competition for the first time since the women’s team was re-established in 2018.
“It’s something everyone dreams of playing in the Champions League,” Zelem tells i. “Being a Manchester United fan, it would mean even more to me, because United is a club with huge ambitions and the philosophy is about winning trophies and being at the pinnacle of success.”
While her father Alan played in goal for Macclesfield and uncle Peter turned out for Chester, Preston and Burnley, for a Manchester-born midfielder in her mid-20s, the United obsession was inevitable. It is impressive nonetheless that she inherited such a knack with a dead ball from her idol David Beckham. In fact, Zelem has scored three goals directly from corners already this season, including two in the same game against Leicester.
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“Now I think people are clocking onto it,” she says. “We played Reading straight after and they had the tallest player on the back post so they were prepared. We’ve had more corner [goals] than we have penalty goals!
“The first one against Man City, I was just aiming for the back-post area and letting the girls attack it. Then I thought ‘I could do that again!’ It got to the Leicester game and I thought, I should have started practising this earlier.
“Everybody loves Beckham, he was unbelievable, but for me growing up watching United it was about the game as a whole. You got to see so many different types of players. When I used to play as a No 10 I’d watch how Wayne Rooney played, with so much heart and desire, assisting so many goals.”
Her set-piece trick, honed by watching Soccer AM’s corner challenge, led to manager Marc Skinner describing her as a “genius”, which she does not take too seriously. “I think that’s probably a bit generous,” Zelem laughs.
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Those three points were vital with United warding off fourth-placed Manchester City.
United face Brighton on Sunday, with a chance to cement their European credentials even if catching the top two, Chelsea and Arsenal, now looks unlikely. Zelem insists, however, that people forget how new United are to the Women’s Super League, only promoted in April 2019, and take for granted how far they have come.
“I even forget myself,” she says. “Just consistently competing within the top four is already an unbelievable achievement. Because it is Manchester United, because of the history and heritage of the club, people are quick to forget that, they don’t realise how new the women’s team is. That is something we need to put into perspective.”
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Unlike most of her team-mates, Zelem does at least have some experience of Europe’s premier competition, having spent a year in Juventus between 2017-18. Most of it, she grins, was spent indulging in Turin’s pizzerias, but it also played its part in shaping her captaincy.
“I now have so much sympathy with international players,” she says. “When you expose yourself to a different situation, you can walk in someone else’s footsteps. I grew so much as a player, but even more as a person. I was in Italy at 21 years old – so young, I didn’t know a word of Italian except ‘Ciao’. I moved in on my own, set up a new bank account. It really made me grow up and mature.”
United as a whole have matured, with a handful of new signings and the upheaval of losing manager Casey Stoney in the summer. That they find themselves on the cusp of Champions League qualification, after just eight three wins in their opening nine games, is not to be underestimated.
“It took the likes of Chelsea, Man City and Arsenal years to get into these positions and be competing for the Champions League,” Zelem says. Their only major setback of late came in the draw with West Ham, conceding a 93rd-minute equaliser – but as she admits, “football is never quite as straightforward as you’d like it to be”.
Zelem was speaking to i in collaboration with Manchester United’s official electrical styling partner, Remington and their Manchester United styling collection
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