Veteran striker’s goal-scoring exploits at Euro 2017 have made her feel she now truly belongs on the international stage

Jodie Taylor has scored goals for 12 clubs in five countries spread across three continents but there is nothing remotely blasé, let alone world weary, about Euro 2017’s most ruthless finisher.

On the contrary, England’s principal striker – who, courtesy of exquisite movement and sublime timing, has registered four goals from five chances – could not be more excited to be in the Netherlands.

As Taylor sits chatting enthusiastically about her parents’ trip over from Merseyside and how they are now “buzzing” about the Lionesses advancing to the knockout stages, she appears very much on a mission to make up for lost time.

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Although she is 31, this is only the second major tournament for a woman who did not win her first cap until 2014. Small wonder she jokes about “sleeping with the ball” following her hat-trick against Scotland last week.

Rewind four years and Taylor was a frustrated spectator when Hope Powell’s England exited Euro 2013 in Sweden at the group stage.

“I was playing in Sweden at the time, for Goteborg,” says a forward France may struggle to stop in Sunday’s quarter-final in Deventer. “A lot of my team-mates were in the Swedish side. They were on fire [and reached the semi-final]. I remember sitting in the stadium in Gothenburg watching them and just thinking: ‘I know I should be here.’

“It was probably the first time I’d thought: ‘I should be here’ rather than just: ‘Maybe I’ll get a chance to go to an England camp.’ So it was a bit of a turning point.

“It was the first time I knew I was good enough for England. In the past I maybe hadn’t been valued by certain people so I hadn’t had the belief but, suddenly, I thought: ‘Regardless of what anyone else says, I know I deserve to be playing for England’.”

Taylor emailed Powell but the former national coach remained unmoved and it was not until Mark Sampson took over that she got her chance. Sampson’s faith in her is such that he took her to the last World Cup in Canada when she was recovering from knee surgery. The Welshman has stuck by a centre-forward whose movement he describes as “world class” as she overcame a more recent achilles problem.

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“I really feel the belief and confidence and trust from Mark,” she says. “That has been huge for me through the tough times – knowing I’m still valued.”

Watching Taylor’s irresistible amalgam of intuitive positioning, devastating change of pace and apparently nerveless finishing, the only puzzle is how on earth she failed to win a senior cap until the grand old age of 28.

Maybe it was down to her rarely being domestically based. When she is not climbing the goal charts, Taylor collects passport stamps.

Since leaving Birkenhead and Tranmere Rovers’ attack to begin a sports scholarship at Oregon State University, she has “club-hopped” between North America, Australia and northern Europe. Along the way she has felt the chill of a Canadian winter and the heat of southern hemisphere summers.

Currently at Arsenal, Taylor has, in no particular order, lived in Melbourne, Sydney, Gothenburg, Ottawa, Boston, Los Angeles, Washington, Portland, Birmingham, Lincoln and now London. Then there was a brief sojourn as assistant manager of Fresno State Bulldogs, a Californian university side.

The Netherlands may lack the glamour of the Pacific coast but its air evidently suits her. “I feel like I’ll score every time now,” she says. “For strikers it’s a mental game, it’s up and down, sometimes you’re on a drought, sometimes everything you hit goes in. Fortunately, everything’s going right at the moment.

“I think it’s just down to my confidence – I’m relaxed, I’m composed. Our preparation’s been really good; I’ve had a lot of time working on finishing and lots of time with the team. That shows in front of goal.”

Taylor has also done her homework. “I’ve been studying the goalies,” she says. “I like to watch a lot of footage of them in one-to-one situations. When we played Spain, I knew their goalie flies off her line. For my goal against them she went down early, so I knew to dink it over her. Watching her definitely helped.

“I also do visualisation. It helps with defenders. You watch five or six video clips and you start to see people’s tendencies and are able to visualise what they’ll do in games.

“Then I replay goals in my mind and visualise scenarios that might happen. Half the time it’s irrelevant but sometimes it means you’re ready for that one chance.”

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Such diligence is helping her confound the notion that, past 30, strikers decline. “I don’t think about my age at all,” says Taylor. “I’ve been unfortunate with injuries but I’m in a really good place right now. Physically, there’s still more to come from me, I think. At 31 I certainly don’t feel anywhere near the end of my career.”

After the disappointment of going to Canada 2015 less than half fit, she fully deserves her place this summer. “It was just a lateral meniscus tear,” Taylor recalls. “But it was an eight-to-10-week recovery time frame and the World Cup was in six weeks. The surgeon was great and I’ve got no issues with my knee now but I was certainly pushing through it in Canada and for a few months beyond. But that was 100% my call. After not getting an England call up for years, I wasn’t missing that tournament.”

Her reward came with the opening goal in a 2-1 quarter-final victory over Canada in front of 54,000 at Vancouver’s BC Place as Sampson’s Lionesses headed for third spot. Now England are aiming to finish first – and Taylor as Euro 2017’s top scorer.

“Every forward wants to win the golden boot,” she says. “But I would take a gold medal over a golden boot, 100%.”