She may not attract the headlines of her more-vaunted team-mates but Manchester United fan’s favorite Leah Galton continues to prove herself indispensable as they continue their pursuit of a first trophy.
One of the surviving ‘originals’ from the team founded in 2018, Galton is fourth on the list of the club’s all-time appearance-makers and second all-time top goalscorer. Nominally a left winger, she enjoyed her most prolific season in the last campaign, finishing as Manchester United’s joint-top scorer in the Women’s Super League, striking the crucial first goal in five matches, including in big-stadium games away to Manchester City and Tottenham Hostpur.
However, despite their best-ever season, Manchester United’s only three regulation-time defeats came against their nemeses Chelsea, who finished above them in the league and pipped them in the Women’s FA Cup final at the first-ever Wembley sell-out for a women’s club match. This despite Galton putting the ball in the Chelsea net within the first minute, only to have her euphoria cut short by the referee’s whistle. It was a moment Galton’s mind went back to over the summer.
“I’ve thought about it quite a lot.” she told me. “It was pure emotion and happiness obviously when I thought I had scored, but I think someone was slightly offside in the build-up so it got ruled out. I’ll still remember that definitely for years to come, hopefully I can score at Wembley again.”
After a four-year college scholarship during which she starred for Hofstra Pride, Galton was signed up by Sky Blue FC in the NWSL before earning a move to German giants FC Bayern in December 2017 on an 18-month contract. Six weeks after making her league debut, Galton sensationally ended her time there and stated she would be taking a break from the professional game.
She revealed to me that in that time, she had do idea whether she would return to the game. “I hadn’t really thought about what I was going to do going forward, but I didn’t think in the moment that I was definitely going to come back, so I was kind of a bit in a lost space. It was a bit worrying to be fair, it was a bit of a weird time and a weird place.”
After four months away from the game, Galton was enticed back by the new Manchester United manager Casey Stoney as the biggest club in England belatedly launched a senior women’s team into the second tier of the game. Galton played in the club’s very first match away to Liverpool and has remained a fixture in the side going into, what is now, her sixth season at the club.
“Obviously, I took a break, and I think I did need it at that point mentally. It made me come back with more fire just to do well, and to up my career again. I’m kind of grateful that I took that time out but I’m also really grateful for the opportunities that I had at Manchester United to go forward.”
A regular provider of goals and assists throughout her club career, it is unsurprising that Galton has attracted the attention of the international selectors. In 2019, fresh from her return to the game, she was unsure whether she wanted to burden herself with extra matches and travel and ruled herself out of England contention. It is a stance she reaffirmed when contacted by new Lionesses coach Sarina Wiegman in 2022.
However, now aged 29, she told me she is not sure if it is a position she will maintain until the end of her career. “Honestly, I’m not sure. I don’t know what the answer is to that. There’s definitely pros and cons and obviously I think about it quite a lot. I watch the girls go away on international breaks and it’s something I do talk about to my agent and stuff.”
“It’s never a total ‘no’ because it’s always a privilege to play for your country and I wouldn’t 100% right that off yet but right now – and I’m not sure how long it will last – I don’t feel like I’m in the place to do that. So. I will keep checking in with them and see if they want me to go back in the future and we’ll see what happens.”
With the majority of Manchester United squad being established national-team players, Galton uses the period during those international breaks to take some time away from the game but also to work on areas of her game which may not be possible during the regular flow of training.
“I definitely take the days off we get and use them wisely, because we don’t get many of them in season so I think it’s a good time for me to just kind of do ‘normal life’ per se and spend time with my family and have a bit of a break. When we are in training, we work really hard because there’s only about six or seven of us. We get a lot of reps, a lot of sets and stuff that we don’t usually get. So it’s a good time to practice the things we need to practice.”
According to Stoney, playing under her at the club Galton began “to fall back in love” with the game. Unsurprisingly, when Stoney suddenly resigned from her position in 2021, it took Galton time to readjust to life under the new head coach Marc Skinner as she admits. “Yeah, definitely. In the beginning I did struggle a little bit because his game-plan is very different to what Casey’s was and what I had done for three years before.”
“I think it took me some time to adapt but I definitely feel, as you can see last season, I adapted more to what he wanted in the game, and obviously going forward this season, there’s other things that we wants from me so I’m hoping to put that into place.”
According to Skinner, playing with the right-footed Hannah Blundell behind Galton limited Manchester United’s wide attacking options last season. Now, he has shifted Blundell to the right after bringing in the left-sided Gabby George. Galton told me, “It’s been really good to train in this last international break with her, we were both in training. We’ve been working on combinations and getting to know how each other play and I think, obviously it will take some time, but we’re getting there slowly and it will be good when it happens.”
During the summer, Manchester United lost their England center forward, Alessia Russo who left the club at the end of her contract to join title-rivals Arsenal. While Manchester United recorded a dramatic injury-time victory away to Aston Villa on the opening day of the season, Russo and Arsenal slumped to a humiliating home defeat to Liverpool.
On Friday night, fate will bring Russo back to her old stomping ground to play for Arsenal away to Manchester United, an occasion heightened by the game’s selection for television coverage by flagship broadcasters Sky Sports. A second defeat for Arsenal in a short season may end their championship aspirations within the first week of the campaign and Manchester United supporters, already intent on making a sit-in protest after the game against the club’s ownership by the Glazer family, are sure to make their dissatisfaction with the way Russo left them known to the player.
Galton, who played alongside Russo for three seasons, hopes the fans respect their former striker, whose two winning goals against Arsenal last season were fundamental in them finishing above the North London side in the WSL table. “She deserves nothing less than that, I hope that they treat her in the right way, because she’s never done anything towards the club that they shouldn’t do that. I’ll definitely be giving her a great reception. I hope everyone else does to.”
Galton’s own contract at Manchester United ends this summer, although she has an option to extend for a further season. A player renowned for her tattoos, when pictures emerged of her with a devil inked on her arm, it was seen by many fans as a sign of her long-time commitment to the club, known as ‘The Red Devils’.
She admitted to me that it had all been a publicity stunt. “The devil tattoo was actually for a shoot and it wasn’t a real tattoo, I’ve had a lot of people obviously saying that I’ve had this tattoo. Just to clear it up, it was for an Adidas photo shoot and I loved it, but I haven’t actually got it on my skin.”
However, if Manchester United end their wait for a first senior trophy this season, Galton has promised to mark the event. “If we won something, like a title, I would definitely get a symbol to represent that because it would be a huge part of my career.”
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