Karen Carney ‘really proud’ to be first footballer to make Strictly semi-finals

Former England Lionesses star Karen Carney has said she is “really proud” to be the first footballer to make the semi-final stage of Strictly Come Dancing.

The 38-year-old ex-Chelsea midfielder reached Saturday’s semi-final of the BBC dancing programme after scoring 34 points for her samba to The Rhythm Of Life from the musical Sweet Charity with professional dance partner Carlos Gu last weekend.

She told the Press Association: “Carlos has told me that quite a bit, he’s really proud actually, he’s like, ‘you’re the first footballer to make the semi-final’, so I think he was really excited, it was a big milestone, and yeah, I’m really proud.”

Gu added: “We made history, that’s incredible.”

Carney continued: “I might be the first footballer but it’s down to this guy (Gu), to be fair, he’s getting me there and pushing me, and I’m really grateful.”

The TV pundit has become the highest-placing footballer in the show’s history regardless of the result of Saturday’s semi-final, beating this year’s I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! contestant and former Lionesses teammate Alex Scott, who reached the quarter-final.

Carney added: “Alex was my roommate for 13, 14 years, so now there’s definitely no banter or anything like that, it’s just pure support, and when we got our first 10, she sent a really nice selfie and like saying, ‘great job’, to both me and Carlos.

“So we’re not competitive, we just want to champion each other really.”

Carney said she wanted to inspire young children to get in to sport through her time on the show, whether that is in football or dancing.

She added: “For me personally, my aim was always to be on the show, it’s a dream to be on it, and he’s heard this millions of times, to enjoy it and to work hard.

“So for me personally, that’s what I would love to come across, and whether that’s in football, whether it’s in dancing, whether it’s in any field that a child is passionate about, then yeah, I want to try and hopefully bring those points across.

“But of course, I’ll always have a soft spot for when a little girl is joining her local football team, or, I’ll always have a soft spot when a little boy wears a jersey with (Chelsea and England right back) Lucy Bronze’s name.

“But I’ll also be really proud if they can do both, if they go and dance and play football, and I am in women’s football, but I’m also a huge advocate for sport, so for me, as long as kids and adults are getting involved in sport, that’s really important to me, and that’s always been a big driver in my career.”

During her time on the show, Carney has also spoken about how her Scheuermann’s disease spinal condition has impacted her performances, and said she hopes she has not “over-dwelled on it”.

She said: “I think we had to raise awareness of it, because there’ll be some restrictions that I think it was right to acknowledge, but I don’t think we’ve dwelled on it, we’ve acknowledged it…

“We’ve found ways, thanks to this great guy next to me, to showcase that even if you do have Scheuermann’s disease, or you have a spinal issue, or you have some sort of issue, that if you surround yourself with really, really good people like this guy, we can find a way.

“And I’m never going to be perfect, I’m never going to be able to nail the ballroom frame, and it’s very, very hard, anxiety wise as well but we’re always going back to our mantra, we will give it our best shot, we will give everything, and we’ll commit to that, and I think that’s we’ve done.

“I have had a lot of people reach out who have had similar things or kind of appreciate it because of spinal issues, but I bizarrely… I totally didn’t think about it coming into Strictly and how it would impact me.”

Saturday’s semi-final will air on BBC One and BBC iPlayer at 6.35pm, with the results show at 7.45pm on Sunday.