Why England teenager Parkinson has a mindset coach

Erica Parkinson was an unknown quantity when England manager Sarina Wiegman unexpectedly named her in the senior squad in March. The teenager was playing in Portugal and had only made the jump up to England's Under-23s a few months earlier. People are now starting to take notice as the midfielder secured a move to the United States this summer, joining North Carolina Courage on a three-year deal. Wiegman was in the stands on Saturday as the 17-year-old made her debut, coming on as a half-time substitute in a 3-0 loss to Bay FC and performing well.

But behind the raw talent is an ambitious footballer who has planned out her route to the top by training her mind in order to stand out from the rest. BBC Sport explores how she is developing off the pitch as well as on it.

Background and early career

Parkinson was born in Singapore to an English father and a Japanese mother, and is eligible to represent both nations, as well as Portugal, where she spent most of her playing career. She was with Leixoes from the age of 10 and had some involvement with Benfica before breaking into Valadares Gaia's first team in the 2023-24 season.

Mindset training from age 12

Since the age of 12, Parkinson has been working with a mindset coach, developing skills to handle pressure and expectation off the pitch, and to improve her leadership, decision-making and awareness on it. She connected with Martin Fairn, founder of Gazing Performance, who has worked with a number of elite athletes including the New Zealand men's rugby team and former England cricketer Ashley Giles. Fairn was approached by Parkinson's father, Richard, and quickly began working with Erica and her brother Dennis.

"I knew straight away that Erica had a determination not everybody has," Fairn told BBC Sport. "I said to Erica: 'What do you want to do?' And she said: 'I'd like to play football for England.' That was how it all kicked off."

Fairn added: "It's relatively rare someone that young seeks out mindset training. Do they need it? There won't be one person who couldn't benefit from it. In football particularly, it's viewed as a problem that needs fixing rather than a skill that needs developing."

Parkinson and Fairn have worked together for over five years, catching up in person at the end of each season and holding regular meetings over Zoom. In a pre-season session before the 2025-26 campaign - which BBC Sport has seen summary notes of - Parkinson focused on raised expectations and on developing more clarity of her role on the pitch.

Preparing for the senior call-up

On her flight to her first senior Lionesses camp in March, Parkinson wrote a list of the pressures and emotions she could feel - a common process with Fairn. They reflected on how she might react to the challenges, what her ambitions were during those moments and how she could prepare. The list included: the honour of being called up, anticipation of walking into a camp with star-studded names, increased intensity of training, behaviours off the pitch, media attention and increased scrutiny, and performing in training.

Multilingual and experienced beyond her years

One of the biggest discussions Fairn and Parkinson had was about the work she had done to get herself into a position to earn an England call-up. Parkinson can speak four languages (Portuguese, French, Japanese and English), has trained with boys in Portugal and cemented her place in the senior women's team at Valadares as a 15-year-old. She has almost 50 caps for England's youth teams and will be taking another step-up now she has joined North Carolina Courage.

But there is still a way to go if Parkinson wants to become a regular in Wiegman's squad - so how can Fairn help her prepare for that? "The pathway to the top is notoriously challenging. The acceptance Erica had of that reality was one of the first breakthroughs," said Fairn.