It’s not a surprise Ella Toone is in the final, says her former PE teacher
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Chris Nuttall taught Toone from Year 9 to Year 11 at Fred Longworth High School in Tyldesley, said he saw the midfielder’s potential at school and “could tell” she would achieve great success in football.
The sports teacher said it was a “surreal” experience watching Toone score the opening goal on Wednesday, but felt her success was expected after demonstrating a strong sporting ability at school.
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Hide AdMr Nuttal, 38, said: “It’s surreal to see Ella play in the World Cup semi-final, but it’s brilliant now (England) have got through to the final.
“For myself and the rest of the department, it’s not a surprise for us because the way Ella conducted herself and how passionate she was about football throughout school, you could see how determined she was.
“You could tell she was going to go onto great things in terms of her football career.”
Mr Nuttall also describes the midfielder, 23, as a “role model” which began at her old high school after she encouraged more girls to pick up sports.
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Hide AdHe explained: “She was the type of student that was a dream for a PE teacher because she was involved in anything, any sport.
“She was a role model in whichever sport that she did.
“She was a big starting point and now we run a number of girls’ teams and we have a lot of girls join football teams, and that all started from Ella.”
The PE teacher expressed his pride in seeing his former student make herself one of the heroes of the day with a brilliant first-half strike, making Lionesses fans believe they could make their first World Cup final.
He said: “You always hope as a PE teacher that one of your students will continue that passion when they leave school.
“For somebody to go onto the level that she has, breaking records… it’s unbelievable.”
Mr Nuttall hopes that the Lioness will score again in England’s final against Spain on Sunday and expects the team to achieve the same result as the semi-final.