Taekwondo was brutal ... that contributed to football

Liverpool's Olivia Smith talks martial arts, her dad's Anfield pride and tomorrow's FA Cup semi-final against Chelsea

- Tom Garry

It is hard to comprehend the level of pride Olivia Smith's dad, a Liverpool fan from Ontario, must have felt when he made his first visits to Anfield this season and his daughter scored three times in two games. They had been nurturing her skills together since she was three years old at a Just For Kicks session in her home town of Whitby, near Toronto.

"My dad was so invested in football. He put me into every sport, but football was the one we felt was 'the one'," says Smith, who was routinely playing for age-group teams that were two years up.

"I didn't fully commit to football until I was about eight or nine, as I was torn between taekwondo and football, but my dad just saw something really special in me.

"I always enjoyed going in net for like small-sided games. I thought it was fun, but for the most part I was always a forward. I grew up watching YouTube videos of Marta and Christine Sinclair, every day before a game. I wanted the ball and I always wanted to score goals. Sometimes I'd even just take the ball from my teammates and go and score a goal."

She recalls being bullied by kids at junior school - "I'm sure they're regretting that now," says Smith, who became the youngest player to make a Canada debut, aged 15, in 2019 - and she believes martial arts have helped shape her game.