‘England’s next superstar!’ - Meet Grace Clinton, the Lionesses’ breakthrough talent impressing Sarina Wiegman & earning Ella Toone comparisons

Born in Liverpool, Clinton was first spotted by then-Everton boss Andy Spence when she was just 10 years old. However, despite being offered a trial for the club’s regional talent centre, she continued to play for her school and Old Xavs, the boys' team that her father helped to set up. "He wanted me to carry on playing in the boys’ team in grassroots football because they were stronger than me," Clinton explained in a column for England Football in October.

A few years later, though, she took up the invitation and it was through Everton’s youth set-up that she would continue to progress, sitting on the fringes of the first-team from around the age of 17 before putting pen-to-paper on a professional contract a few months later.

“She is an enormous talent and has come on leaps and bounds this season,” Willie Kirk, Everton’s head coach at the time, said when the news was announced. “Technically, she is fantastic and her tactical knowledge is already at a good level. She has improved her physical conditioning and professionalism and if this improvement continues, who knows how good she can be. She has got the right character to get to the top.”

But despite the belief in her talent from Kirk, Clinton struggled to break into Everton’s first-team on a consistent basis, with him citing the competition in midfield as one reason at the time.

“She was a great kid first of all but she was a little bit frustrating because she was a little bit lazy out of possession," he said in an interview with BBC Sport in October. "I remember, it was in my last game at Everton, she scored a fantastic goal against Manchester City. It was a top, top goal and everyone was talking about it saying, 'That's why she should be playing more'. But everyone forgot she didn't track back for [Caroline] Weir's goal which put us 1-0 down. She was righting her wrongs!”

With her still so young and still needing to refine areas of her game, a summer switch from Everton to Manchester United in 2022 raised a few eyebrows as it hardly felt like there was an easier path to the first-team there. With an injury to the midfielder also playing a part, head coach Marc Skinner took some time to decide the best course of action for her development and, in January of last year, sent Clinton on loan to Bristol City in the Championship.

That switch was the start of a really impressive and exciting 12 months or so for Clinton. Marking her debut at Bristol with a late goal that helped her new team come from 2-1 down to win 3-2 in stoppage time, head coach Lauren Smith didn’t hold back with her praise for the then-19-year-old in her post-match interview. “She's got something special,” she said.

Scoring six goals and registering one assist in 10 Championship starts, Clinton helped Bristol win promotion to the WSL during her four-month stint and it was clear that she was ready to make that step up, whether with the Robins, Man Utd or someone else. In the end, it was the latter, with Spurs securing her services for the 2023-24 season, and it did not take her long to show the top-flight what she was all about.

Spurs had a tough opening fixture in this WSL season, travelling to Stamford Bridge to take on Chelsea, the reigning champions. But in the end, the north London side were unlucky to make the short trip home empty-handed after a particularly impressive second-half display, in which Clinton was one of their stand-out individuals. The 20-year-old was only denied a wonder-goal by an excellent Zecira Musovic stop and it was her saved shot that led to Martha Thomas pulling one back in an eventual 2-1 defeat.

“She’s only 20 years old and she was so dominant in this game,” Spurs boss Vilahamn said afterwards. “She will be the next superstar in this country if you ask me. I think she’s brilliant and has the potential to be so good.”

It was a case of Clinton setting the tone for her time with the club because she has only got better since that opening weekend. No one in the WSL has completed more dribbles than the youngster, who has been thriving in a wider role, racking up four goals and two assists in 13 appearances for a team that sits bang in the middle of the table, in sixth place.

It's a different position for Clinton, who has played in the holding midfield, box-to-box, No.10 and No.9 roles throughout her young career. But Vilahamn has got good results with his strategy so far, even if he believes her future will be in a different area of the pitch.

“She’s a No.10, absolutely. In the future, she’s going to start as a No.10 in the national team, I’m quite sure of that,” he said earlier this season, making a prediction that would come true only a few months later. “Sometimes when you’re young and you want to be on the ball, and you don’t want to lose it in the risky moments, taking a step out to the left like she’s doing now is a good way because then she can go into the space with the ball, instead of starting in the space. Then she’s also finding her way into that pocket and taking a shot. For me, she will be a No.10, but right now, she’s doing a good job for me as a left-winger, so she will probably end up in both positions.”

That versatility is just one of the traits that makes Clinton such an asset for club and country. With excellent footwork, an eye for a pass and the desire to take up goal-scoring positions, she is both a creative force and someone who can find the back of the net herself, something we’ve seen with England now as well as Spurs. It’s clear that confidence is flowing through her, too, given the form she is in and the talent she has.

“She plays like a natural,” Wiegman said. “She wants to have the ball. She picks up the things we talk about very quickly and that’s what you see on the pitch, too. You can tell she takes things on board and just goes out there and plays.”

Given her ability in the No.10 role in particular, it’s perhaps no surprise that Man Utd boss Skinner has previously compared Clinton to the player currently occupying that role for the Red Devils – Ella Toone.

“What I love is she has bags of personality and what you need is those people who will take the ball in tight areas and say, 'Look, I'll make something happen', when you're not particularly performing well, too,” Skinner told GOAL last season. "You have to have those types of players. Ella Toone is a great example. When we're not performing at our best, she can make a magic moment. I see that in Grace.”

But Wiegman showed last Friday that there is a world in which the pair can play together, by deploying Clinton as a No.8 and Toone as a No.10. “Sarina told me at the start of the week she was going to try me in that position. I am open to a challenge, it is nice to be deeper and get on the ball more, it's what I want to do,” Clinton said. “To be in there with G [Georgia Stanway] and Tooney, they really helped me out a lot, it was nice.”

“I absolutely loved it,” Toone added, of playing with Clinton. “She’s a great player with a lot of talent and is very good on the ball. To link up with her – we’ve never done that before, we’ve never played together – felt so natural.” Man Utd fans will hope to see more of it next season, when the 20-year-old returns to her parent club.

After her debut against Austria, and first England goal, Clinton didn’t hesitate to describe the game as “the biggest moment” of her career so far. “For it to go like that, I am very happy,” she said. And that’s the most impressive thing about the 20-year-old’s breakthrough with the Lionesses this past week, that it hardly looked like this huge occasion. As Wiegman pointed out, she simply went out and played with freedom.

It's worth noting how Clinton went about the defensive side of her game in these two matches as well. It’s still an area for improvement, as Kirk highlighted, but the Spurs star ranked second among England players for tackles won in these two games and third for possession won. She certainly did her bit off the ball – and she has been doing that in the WSL, too, with no player in the division having won more tackles.

She’ll have certainly impressed Wiegman and has thrown her hat right in the ring to be an important player for England as qualifying for the 2025 European Championship looms, kicking off in the next international break in April. But Clinton will need to keep impressing, because with Toone, the in-form Jess Park and a hopefully fully-fit Fran Kirby also vying for that No.10 spot, the competition in midfield is so strong.

And so back to north London Clinton goes, looking to maintain her wonderful form. This weekend, she has another big occasion to look forward to as Spurs visit the Emirates Stadium, hoping to back-up their first-ever win over Arsenal in December. Then there is the small matter of an FA Cup quarter-final against Manchester City, who are level on points with leaders Chelsea in the WSL title race.

Spurs will be huge underdogs for both games but in Clinton they have, as so many of her coaches have noted, a player who can change a game in an instant. They have England’s next superstar. They have a player who, after her Lionesses breakthrough this past week, a lot more people are going to be keeping an eye on.