Bayern Munich’s Georgia Stanway: ‘We need to be nastier. I tell the girls that a lot’

‘G uten Tag. Wie geht’s?” “Sehr gut, und dir?” At which point, Georgia Stanway and I have pretty much exhausted our meagre supply of German. It’s not entirely our fault: as any Brit living in Germany will tell you, it is virtually impossible to learn the local language when everyone is intent on chattering away at you in English. Since moving to Bayern Munich last summer Stanway has been taking weekly lessons, but admits she’s “still waiting for that click”. The coach, Alexander Straus, conducts his team meetings in English. The training ground instructions are in English. The WhatsApp group is in English. Mercifully, so is the rest of this interview.

Still, for a Barrow girl there are times when Munich feels a long way from home. Beans on toast is one example: you can buy baked beans in Germany, but somehow they don’t taste the same to her. The 24-year-old misses her family and friends, even though they do their best to visit. She broke up with her boyfriend because of the difficulties of maintaining a long-distance relationship, even if they’ve stayed on friendly terms. But as she puts it: “I’m quite an independent person. I like my own space.” Besides, she has important work to do.

Bayern may be giants of the men’s game, but in women’s football they have won comparatively little. In leaving Manchester City, then, Stanway was stepping well out of her comfort zone: into the challenge of a new country, the test of a new league, the burden that comes with being a marquee foreign signing, the responsibility of dictating big games. Games such as the Champions League quarter-final against Arsenal on Tuesday.

Ominously for Arsenal, Stanway’s adaptation on the pitch has been a good deal smoother than her adaptation off it.