Karen Carney, who wowed viewers on her Strictly Come Dancing debut, has met Prince William on several occasions and has lifted the lid on what he is really like
Prince William meets Karen Carney (left) and England teammates Ellen White and Steph Houghton in 2015
All eyes will be on former England Women star Karen Carney as she takes to the dancefloor again on Strictly Come Dancing this weekend, having set the ballroom alight in the opening show of the new series.
The ex-Lioness stunned the judges and viewers at home as she was awarded a whopping 31 points out of 40 for her jive with professional dance partner Carlos Gu. That score saw her top the leaderboard – the first footballer to do so since John Barnes in 2007 – and emerge as an early favourite to lift the famous glitterball.
While it has emerged that Carney trained in dance as a child before turning her attention to football, her talent on the dancefloor came as a surprise to many fans, as she added yet another string to her bow.
The 38-year-old is England’s third-most capped women’s player of all time, having made 144 appearances for the national side in a 14-year international career between 2005 and 2019. Playing as a winger and midfielder, she is also one of the Lionesses’ top goalscorers of all time, finding the back of the net 33 times.
Having started her career with Birmingham City, she went on to represent Arsenal, Chelsea and Chicago Red Stars. While she won two FA Cups with Birmingham and Chelsea, the bulk of her success came with the Gunners as she added three Premier League National Division titles, three further FA Cups, a Premier League Cup and a UEFA Cup to her impressive trophy haul.
Nowadays, Carney is a respected pundit in both the women’s and men’s game, having established a successful broadcasting career working for the likes of TNT Sports, Sky Sports, ITV and Amazon Prime.
After being made an MBE in the 2017 New Year Honours, she was again recognised for her services to football by being made an OBE in the Birthday Honours last year. That visit to Windsor Castle saw the ex-Birmingham star receive her award from Prince William, who is a huge fan of the Blues’ arch-rivals, Aston Villa.
Carney topped the Strictly leaderboard in the first show(Image: PA)
On meeting the prince, Carney admitted she “gave some banter” to the future monarch over the rivalry, but he had taken it in good faith, showing his true colours as a “massive” football fan.
“It’s been in the diary for some time and then only as I walked up and got into the room I got a little bit emotional and then it became quite real,” she said after receiving her OBE.
“The one common language that we can all speak is football, so had a good football chat with [Prince William] which was cool and had a really good time.
“I don’t want to be disrespectful to any of the others, but I’ve met Prince William before when I played for England, met him various times. To receive my OBE from him was special. He’s a massive football fan so we just chatted about football really.
“Everyone knows I’m a massive Birmingham City fan, and obviously Prince William is a Villa fan,” she added, as she noted that she had received her award on the same day the Villans faced European giants Bayern Munich in the Champions League.
“There’s a big Villa game tonight which he’s going to. So I did my dad proud and said look I’m gonna give you some banter about the Villa and make sure you know I’m a Blues fan, which I’ve told him many times before.He’s a massive football fan, Lionesses and men’s football as well – it was great to chat with him.”
Carney will be looking to follow up her sensational start to her Strictly stint on Saturday as she and Gu take to the dancefloor again, this time performing the tango to Dua Lipa’s ‘Training Season’.