Rachel Corsie: 'I achieved more than I thought possible in football'

Rachel Corsie has admitted she has achieved more than she ever thought possible, as she prepares to draw a line under her illustrious career.

The Scotland captain announced on Monday that she will retire after the upcoming internationals against Austria and Netherlands, ending a 16-year spell playing for the national team.

Corsie began playing senior football with Aberdeen back in 2006 and went on to play for Glasgow City and then time in the USA with Seattle Reign, Utah Royals and Kansas City Current. The defender also played in Australia with Canberra United and had three spells in England with Notts County, Birmingham City and Aston Villa.

In Scotland colours, she earned 154 caps, scored 20 goals and was part of the groundbreaking sides that reached both the European Championships and the World Cup for the first time.

“I’ve definitely achieved a lot more than I thought was possible,” Corsie said when asked to reflect on her career.

“Looking back, it’s so amazing to think of all the different things I’ve done.

“To have travelled the world, met all the people I’ve met, whether that’s players that you play with or against, coaches, support staff. So many people.

“And that was one of the biggest things about yesterday. So many people reached out and it was so overwhelming. And so lovely.”

Injury restricted Corsie to just two appearances in her final season with Villa, and prompted her to take the difficult decision to announce that she was retiring.

“Announcing it publicly, was an emotional day, but a really nice day,” she said. “I got so many messages, so just trying to work my way through them and just appreciate them, it was definitely a nice moment for me.

“I’ve known for a little longer, so there’s a relief about being able to come out and say it publicly and just acknowledge that this is now it. It was quite hard, though.

“It made it feel real. For me, there’s a lot of things that have come together in a nice way.

“I’ve had a hard year, but to finish being able to play on the pitch was the biggest thing for me.”

Corsie admits she’s going to enjoy a break after her final game but the chartered accountant doesn’t think she’s done with football yet.

She’s eyeing a role in the game “in some capacity”

“I’m definitely going to take some time out, and I don’t know how that’s going to go, I think that might be the hardest bit,” Corsie said.

“But I’m going to definitely take a couple of weeks gone holiday, turn my phone off probably as much as you can these days and just enjoy that because I think when you’ve been a professional athlete, summer’s never quite summer.

“You always think, how many days before I need to go in the gym? Do I need to do a bike session? Should I go a run when I’m on holiday? So I’m going to try and go on holiday and do none of that.

“And then, I think for me, I want to stay within football in some capacity. I love it. I’ve done probably lots of little things over the course of my career. I’ve really enjoyed the media.

“I’ve done little bits of coaching, different bits and pieces through the players’ union, things in the US, things back here but I need to probably figure out what feels like a good opportunity next and what feels right. A little break first and then we’ll see.”

Leading a team as head coach isn’t something the hugely experienced player would rule out, though she said that she knows there’s a lot more to management than meets the eye.

“I think if I do, that’ll be quite a little bit down the line,” Corsie added. “I think you realise as a senior player, being a head coach, being a coach is really hard.

“I think a lot of people think if you play the game, you could just go into coaching, but there’s so much more to it than I think people realise.

“If I was to want to do that, I would want to really give it my best shot and I know that that would take quite a lot of time. You need to build the right skills to be able to do that well.”