England midfielder Ella Toone on dealing with grief: “I feel like every time I won something, something bad came after”

Ella Toone is a two-time European champion with England and an FA Cup winner with childhood football club Manchester United.

None of it, she believes, would have been possible without her late father Nick.

“He was just obsessed, he loved women’s football more than he loved watching the men’s game,” she told BBC Sport in a recent interview.

“He knew all the players, he was passionate about where I was in my career, the team I had, the way we were playing. He would go into any pub and talk about women’s football and talk about me.

“Me and dad were all about football, that was our thing together. He was probably one of the first people that really saw potential in me.”

Her dad received a prostate cancer diagnosis the day after the EURO 2022 final, in which Toone scored to help England beat Germany 2-1, winning their first major title.

Toone found out in May 2024, the day after she won the FA Cup with Manchester United, also a first major trophy for her club and another game in which scored under the Wembley arch.

In September of the same year, three days before his 60th birthday, Nick passed away. Determined to carry on, to honour his memory, the 26-year-old was back in training the following day.

“I went straight back into football because I knew that’s what he would have wanted. I started the first game at Old Trafford, it was really difficult, but I feel like that’s what I needed to do in that moment,” she explained.

“I needed to play. I couldn’t just be sat around moping about, thinking about it all the time. I knew he would have been there and been watching.”

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More difficult news followed, when on the morning of the EURO 2025 final in which England won on penalties against Spain, she learned that her grandmother passed away.

“I feel like every time I won something, something bad came after,” she said.

For all Toone wanted to continue pushing on, an injury turned blessing in disguise when it gave her the chance to process her grief away from the pitch, she adds: “I think it was my body telling me to stop before I would have had a mental breakdown.”

Almost two years on from losing her dad, Toone is back playing and still striving to do him proud in all areas of her life. Every goal is met with arms to the sky, serving as a dedication to one of the first people to believe in her career.

She carries him off the pitch, too, albeit still in their shared love of the sport. Through the ET7 Academy, part of Nick’s legacy lives on in women’s football.

“The academy brought us together even though it is stressful,” she said. “I think this hard work goes unnoticed but definitely not by me.

“Setting up the academy is part of dad’s legacy; he loved being part of something that he knew would help young girls have opportunities.”

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