Joanne Broadhurst enjoyed a long, long career. She played for Arsenal for just two seasons, from 1995 and 1997, and was a mainstay of other highly successful women’s teams such as Doncaster Belles and Croydon (who would become Charlton Athletic during her time there), yet the Sheffield-born midfielder recalls her time at Arsenal very fondly. 

“I couldn’t believe they wanted to sign a Northener!” she says. Now aged 58, Broadhurst still plays football every week, which is perhaps not a surprise given that she was 42 when she officially retired from playing. In fact, when she settles down to speak to us, Jo is slightly breathless because she has just been for a run. 

For Broadhurst, taking up football in 1970s Sheffield was very much a case of being a chip off the old block. “My dad was a semi-pro footballer,” she says. Brian Broadhurst played for Hallam, Chesterfield and Loughborough United, and would later coach Sheffield Ladies, Doncaster Belles and Croydon. 

“I am one of three girls but I was the one that followed in his footsteps. I was sporty; I just wanted to play sport all the time. I used to watch my dad play football and I just loved football. I love it now more than ever! “It has been a massive passion of mine my whole life. Even in baby pictures I always had a ball tucked under my arm!”

Broadhurst’s love of the game may have been set from very early childhood but, as it was for most girls at the time, playing structured football was a challenge and she had to be forthright to negotiate barriers for young girls in the 1970s. 

“In my school days girls weren’t allowed to play football in the school yard. I used to sneak into the boys’ yard for a quick fiveminute kick about. I eventually managed to convince the school to let me play for the school team. They only allowed me to play for half the game, but on my debut I scored two goals and got Player of the Match. I just kept pushing and pushing to let me play in the boys’ team, but it didn’t happen very often,” she recalls. 

Undeterred, Broadhurst continued to find – force, even – as many playing opportunities as she could. Her father Brian transitioned from player to coach. At the time, Joanne says having a father who was a qualified coach could be awkward but, in hindsight, she understands how it nurtured her talent. 

“When you get into that rebellious teenage phase, you get your own ideas and you don’t want to listen to your parents! But looking back, he was amazing for my football and gave me everything I needed.” That included access to opportunities. Brian was coach at Sheffield Ladies, where she began playing at a young age. “I was only 12 when I started playing for Sheffield Ladies because there were no age groups,” she says. 

That experience gave Jo the grounding to move on to bigger things. She signed for 1980s and early 1990s powerhouse Doncaster Belles, where she won four FA Cups and two league titles. “Donny Belles were a massive club, and being from where I am I always wanted to play for them. I was 17 when I signed for them, after the manager Paul Edmunds asked me if I wanted to train with them. I loved it and signed immediately. I had the most amazing time in that team. I am still friends with many players and we all go out together.”

While playing for the Belles, Broadhurst, like all female players at that time, had a full-time job. In Jo’s case, her day job was a physically demanding one. “I worked at Royal Doulton in Stoke and I did some forklift truck driving as well as various other jobs. I did what I had to do to play. It was difficult; it was a physical job, we trained twice a week and travelled to play on a Sunday and then it was back to work on Monday. It wasn’t easy but we all did it because we loved the game and we loved the team.” 

During the early 1990s, Donny Belles supremacy came under concerted challenge from London in the shape of Vic Akers’ emerging Arsenal side. It turned Arsenal and Donny Belles into women’s football’s big-ticket rivalry. Broadhurst spent a few years on the Yorkshire side of that divide. 

“We really respected Arsenal as players and a few of us were colleagues in the England team. But the rivalry was there when we played each other. We called them southern softies more than once! Once we got on the pitch, nobody cared whether we were friends or international team-mates. I remember being on the end of a tackle from [former Arsenal captain] Gill Wylie and she put me in the crowd! The games we had against each other were amazing.” 

We won the domestic treble in our first season in the top flight in 1992/93, beating the Belles 3-0 in the FA Cup final in the process. But the following season Donny Belles fought back by winning the domestic double. Later, as a Croydon player, Broadhurst would score against us in a classic 1998 FA Cup final, which we eventually won 3-2 thanks to an injurytime header from Kelley Few. In the summer of 1995, Broadhurst “defected”, as she puts it. 

“I was spending a lot of time in London because I had a lot of friends down there. I did my pre-season training with Croydon in 1995. I had never been so fit in my life. They were managed by [former Arsenal striker] Debbie Bampton – she was a real slave driver! “Vic Akers called me one day and asked me to come and speak to him. I said no because I knew what he would ask me!”

Akers was steadfast in his goal of encouraging Joanne to sign for Arsenal. “He came to see me. Vic drove to my house and asked me about potentially coming to Arsenal. I said no at first, but he was very persuasive! Vic drove me to Highbury and it was just after Dennis Bergkamp had signed for the men’s team. He gave me an Arsenal shirt with the number ten on it. I was looking around and it was a different world. I had been used to training on Doncaster racecourse with car lights on so we could see in the dark. 

“Then all of a sudden I am stood at Highbury with the No10 shirt and I thought, ‘I can’t believe he wants me to play here.’ I was very proud and flattered.” Broadhurst describes a feeling of awe and a determination to prove that she belonged in such salubrious surroundings. “I signed on a Thursday and we played at Anfield on the Saturday. I started the game and my legs were jelly.

“I was so nervous, but we won and I scored. To run out at Anfield in an Arsenal shirt in front of my mum and dad was unbelievable.” 

Akers often found players from the women’s team jobs so they could have financial security while they played. It was no different for Broadhurst: “I worked for the mail order service for the Arsenal shop just around the corner from my digs. 

“Playing in that team with those players was incredible. I am still good friends with Marieanne Spacey – I worked for her as a scout at Southampton for a couple of years. I played with her for England too, but there were players like Sian Williams who were amazing players that I really respected. I had to think, ‘Where am I going to fit in here? Am I good enough?’ I wanted to prove that Vic signing me was right for the club.” 

Broadhurst finished as Arsenal’s top scorer in the 1995/96 season with 19 goals, assisted by the fact that usual top scorer Marieanne Spacey went on maternity leave during the course of the campaign. Despite being a dyed-in-the-wool Yorkshirewoman, Joanne had no issues settling in the capital.  

“I loved living in London; I settled well because I wanted to be there. My mum and dad came down to watch the games so I saw them most weekends. When we played up north the rest of my family came. I would have stayed for longer – I would still be there now! But my dad passed away in 2006 so I came back up north.” 

Broadhurst was not afraid to stand her ground when occasion called for it. Her and her Arsenal team-mate Kirsty Pealling were omitted from England’s 1995 World Cup squad by manager Ted Copeland, who had been critical of both players publicly. Joanne had no compunction about being publicly forthcoming in response. 

In an interview with The Guardian newspaper in 1994, Broadhurst was quoted as saying, ‘He only picks boring b******s, he doesn’t like personality. So what can I do?’ Copeland did not pick her for England’s internationals in the summer of 1994 as a punishment, and then excluded her from the 1995 World Cup squad. Broadhurst remains unrepentant. “I still stand by what I said; Kirsty Pealling too,” she says now. “It was absolutely baffling. Players I respected supported me and Kirsty publicly and that made me feel better. I was so upset because I wasn’t told personally or over the phone. I found out on Teletext.”

Broadhurst left the Gunners in 1997 and played on until she was 42, representing Croydon, who would become Charlton Athletic three years after she signed. Broadhurst says her willingness to muck in and her fitness explain her longevity. “When I went to play for Charlton, my last game was a cup final against Everton, in 2005. I was assistant at Charlton Reserves at the time and I wanted to carry on and continue my coaching badges. 

“I kept playing because the manager just kept asking me to be in the squad and I just kept saying yes! Millwall still sometimes ask me to play even now because I worked with their coach!” Her final game was in fact the 2005 FA Cup final, which was the 11th she played in during an illustrious career. A decorated England international who won trophies at three of England’s biggest women’s teams, in this day and age Broadhurst would be a household name earning a good wage. But she harbours no regrets.  

“People ask me if I would prefer to play in this era, but the memories I have got and the friends I made mean the world to me. [Legendary England and Arsenal goalkeeper] Pauline Cope was probably my best friend in football. I am still in touch with Kirsty Pealling and Marieanne Spacey.” 

Broadhurst also explains the tragic circumstances in which she was recently reunited with former team-mates – she was one of Matt Beard’s assistant coaches at Liverpool in 2012. “We all met up again recently at Matt Beard’s funeral. Me and Beardy were really close. I don’t think I have ever felt as bad about anything in my life as Matt’s death. It wasn’t a nice occasion, but we felt we should all meet up and reminisce.” 

Broadhurst is still very engaged with football, albeit not on a full-time professional basis. 

“I have my coaching badges. I still coach on the odd occasion when asked, but I don’t do it as a job. I do talent scouting for the FA, which is what I was doing for Marieanne Spacey at Southampton, but it’s quite ad hoc. I scout talent for the England age groups from time to time.” 

Her time in the mail order department at Arsenal would prove portentous: “I still work at the Royal Mail and I do my talent scouting, and then I still play on Tuesday nights. I often go and watch Chesterfield at the weekend because my friend Michelle Jackson [who played with Broadhurst at Doncaster Belles] is head of women and girls’ football there.” 

At time of writing, Joanne Broadhurst is a few weeks short of her 59th birthday. The girl with the baby pictures of her with a ball under her arm continues to play in a women’s team on a weekly basis. “I can probably run better now than when I was 25,” she jokes. At least, we think she was joking. We certainly aren’t going to argue – that much is certain.