Carol Thomas

Carol Thomas (born 5 June 1955) is an English former footballer who played predominantly as a right-back; she is known for her 43-year club career and 9-year captaincy of the England women's national football team, during which she became the first women's international footballer to reach 50 caps.

Carol McCune was born on 5 June 1955 in Kingston upon Hull in the East Riding of Yorkshire to Percy George "Mac" and Audrey McCune.

Her father was an amateur footballer who had been a founding member of Air Street United, a small local team; he, her uncles, and her older brother Michael, inspired her love of football.

She recalls kicking a ball around with them until she was eleven, being inspired by England winning the 1966 FIFA World Cup to play more seriously.

Thomas played in her first competitive game in September 1966, when she was 11; that summer her family had moved house to be closer to her father's work, with one of their new neighbours playing for BOCM Ladies (British Oil and Cake Mills).

Thomas joined this team as a traditional right winger.

Women's football was still banned in England at the time, as it would be until 1971, with leagues contested by teams supported by companies being "the lifeblood".

Thomas reflected that, though she believed she showed good skills for a child, the team may well have initially taken her on to make up numbers.

She impressed while playing for BOCM; national football administrator Flo Bilton was involved with the league and asked Thomas to join the local team she coached for Reckitt, Reckitts Ladies.

She then joined Reckitts' local rivals, Hull Brewery Ladies (Hull Brewery), "after a couple of seasons"; she stayed with the team, which played in the Hull Women's League, for many years.

With Hull Brewery, where she played in a variety of positions, gaining experience across the pitch, she found more recognition and her career took off.

She earned a regular spot in the Hull and District representative team as a teenager, and was called to both the Northern England and England teams in 1974.

In the same year, to support herself, she took a job as a clerk at Northern Dairies; the company did not have a football team, but she played netball for them.

They also gave her paid leave when she was playing for England, something unusual for the time, with many of her teammates having to take holidays.

Standing out in football, Thomas refused offers of professionalism from teams in Italy and New Zealand in order to maintain the strict amateur status enforced by the Women's Football Association (which operated the national team) at that time.

Still, she sought out better football: she was a guest player for Tottenham Hotspur on a tour to Switzerland, and spent a year at Preston Ladies (in Lancashire), but travel was an issue.

When Thomas returned to playing in Yorkshire, with several seasons at CP Doncaster Ladies, she also had the opportunity to train with the men's Hull City A.F.C. youth team.

In 1974, when Thomas was establishing herself in the Northern England team, she was invited to the first all-women coaching course held at the then-national footballing centre, Lilleshall.

Thomas, along with four others, gained her FA Preliminary Badge to be the first female qualified coaches in England.

The course was being run by the England women's manager, Tom Tranter, and Thomas' performances on it impressed him, resulting in her being asked to trial for England.

At the trials, she impressed in her position as a winger.

She then made her first international appearance in November 1974, for a 2–0 win over France at Plough Lane; Tranter substituted her on in the second half to play at right back, a position she had never played before.

She made two substitute appearances before becoming the first choice right back.

She played club football for a variety of teams around the north of England and was the second captain of England in the modern era, taking over from Sheila Parker in 1976.

For the 1976 Pony Home Internationals, Sheila Parker, the first England women's captain, was not in the squad; Tranter made Thomas, with six caps, captain, shortly before her 21st birthday (to become one of England's youngest captains).

England won the tournament.

The team's record under Thomas saw them reach at least the semi-finals in all seven tournaments in which they competed, winning two: the 1976 Pony Home Championship and the 1985 Mundialito.

During her time as captain, she saw the England women's team play at a Football League First Division ground for the first time (in 1978, to a then-record crowd of 5,471) and play outside of Europe for the first time (for the 1981 Mundialito in Japan).

She married Alan Thomas in July 1979; they skipped a honeymoon to fly out to Italy with the England squad shortly thereafter, for Carol Thomas to take part in that year's unofficial European Championship.

Alan played for and managed Aldbrough United in the East Riding County League, and some Sunday league football, saying he always knew Thomas would be much more successful in the sport than him.

They have two children, Andrew and Mark.

Thomas had retired to start a family, not expecting to return to football.

In 1981, she was playing for both Doncaster and Reckitts again.

They were runners-up in the 1984 UEFA Women's Championship, the first official European final that any England team had reached; it was played over two legs, each a 1–0 victory for the home side, with England losing 3–4 on penalties at a muddy Kenilworth Road.

Thomas became captain at the age of 20 and held that position until her retirement with a then-record 56 caps in 1985.

She then initially retired in 1985 while playing for Rowntrees F.C. Ladies (Rowntree's), having taken them through the rounds of the Women's FA Cup.

Bilton introduced Thomas to more opportunities in football.

Thomas retained her captaincy under Tranter's successor Martin Reagan and became an ever-present until September 1985; she recalls that she missed only one England match between her first call-up and retirement, a 1985 match against Wales that took place on the Isle of Man, with most of the squad's Northern players unable to go "due to logistical and financial restraints".

She remained England's longest continuous-serving captain before being overtaken by Faye White in 2011; she was also the most successful captain of the England women's national team in terms of tournament successes until international titles were won under Leah Williamson.

With her longstanding dedication to both international and grassroots football, she is recognised as one of the largely unsung pioneers of the modern women's game.