Anita Asante: ‘I get to decide when it ends. Not everyone gets that choice’

Anita Asante learned early on in her career that having control over her future was very important. After coming through the ranks at Arsenal, then joining Chelsea, the former England international moved in 2009 to the US to join Sky Blue FC for the inaugural Women’s Professional Soccer championship season, which they went on to win. The following year Asante was traded to Saint Louis Athletica then, when the team folded, Chicago Red Stars where she was traded to Washington Freedom – all in the space of three months.

“I’d never not been in control of what I wanted to do and where I wanted to play,” Asante says. “It was such an overwhelming experience to not have control. It’s tough enough trying to deal with one transition but it happened multiple times. You’re not only leaving the bonds that you build in one club, with your friends, your teammates, but you just up and leave and then you’re in another city, another club environment, new coaches, a new way to play. So there’s also that element of an overload of information, an overload of trying to adjust your life again, each time. I was in my early 20s and at that point it was my first time living away from home.”

Asante’s decision, then, to step back from playing should not be a surprise, despite the impressive form she has shown with Aston Villa this season. Bowing out on her own terms matters to the 36-year-old.

“I had decided quite early on when I took this contract at Villa that I was prepared to play two more years. I’ve very much enjoyed the whole experience, even the difficult parts of it, but I always knew at some point it’s all going to come to an end and I kind of want to be in control of that. I get to decide. Not every athlete gets that choice.

“I feel that