Arms resting on the front rail of the bus, sunglasses in place, a beverage in one hand while gesturing toward supporters with the other as she moved with the music and joined the songs and chants, Alessia Russo was thoroughly enjoying the moment.

“I had the time of my life that day,” says the Arsenal forward of the 9km parade through the red smoke-filled streets of north London after Arsenal men’s Premier League triumph and Arsenal women’s Champions Cup success.

It has been a running joke among fans to call the 27-year-old a “childhood Gooner”, a joke which gained momentum when the shirt a very small Russo was wearing in a family photo with the FA Cup was edited from a Manchester United one into an Arsenal one.

While she may not have been a childhood Gooner, she’s quickly becoming an adult one.

“I came to Arsenal and I wasn’t an Arsenal fan, but since I’ve joined the club and seen the people around the place, it’s impossible to not become a part of Arsenal and to feel like I support Arsenal,” she says. “I want them to do well, I’m backing them every way, and then the parade was just one of the most amazing things I’ve ever experienced. The fans, the atmosphere, the celebrating the men winning the Prem, something that they’d worked so hard for so many years, I was just soaking it in, having fun and enjoying myself.

“It was just a really really special day. It was nice to experience it with the likes of Lotte [Wubben-Moy] and Leah [Williamson] who are proper Gooners, but I think when you come to Arsenal, and I’m speaking for myself here, you kind of take on a part of it and really start to understand and absorb their love for Arsenal. I definitely feel that and it’s really nice to feel like you’re a part of something like that.

“You pick out moments where you win trophies as the main ones that stand out within your career but that will definitely always stand out for me.”

There were faces everywhere, on every balcony, rooftop, bollard and traffic light, of all ages, races and religions. Young boys, but also, in contrast to the Arsenal parades of the 90s and noughties, so many young girls. Cultivating and supporting that fresh generation of girls interested in watching and playing the game is something Russo is incredibly passionate about.

That’s the reason she launched her own foundation earlier this year and why she helped launch the fifth year of Starling Bank’s Kick On initiative, which partners local businesses with girls teams desperately in need of sponsorship and subsidises the front of shirt sponsorship.

According to Starling – which commissioned surveys of 1,000 adult female football players, 1,010 11-17 female players, 501 small- and medium-sized business leaders and 1,092 grassroots football coaches – nearly every grassroots female football club (97%) said their team needed more funds, with opportunities for girls suffering as a result.

The survey also found that 76% of female players said they will have to drop out of their team or the sport altogether if more funding isn’t secured in the next five years and 40% of female players said their team doesn’t get the same amount of funding as male teams.

“They are quite damning statistics, which is such a shame considering the growth that we see in the women’s game,” says Russo. “Over the last five or six years, the growth has just been incredible, but there’s still work to do at the bottom to build it up.”

The risk is that women’s football loses its momentum and misses out on great players coming into the pathway.

“I always say you never want to miss out on the next Leah Williamson or Lotte Wubben-Moy, you don’t want to miss out on talented young players just because they haven’t got a local team or the team that they were at folds,” she says. “It seems like such an easy fix as teams don’t need much, but obviously it isn’t because it’s still a problem.

“I look back on all the people that I met through my grassroots journey and every single one of them played a part in my career, and I’m still friends with many of them. If local businesses can invest in one team, you never know, you might help produce a superstar who goes on to have an incredible career who will always remember you being a part of it. There’s more to it than just investment, it’s that you can really have a say in a core part of these young girls’ journeys and lives.”

With no major international women’s tournament this year, Russo has enjoyed a rare summer off, where she has had the chance to focus on these broader issues she’s passionate about, as well as getting in some much-needed rest.

“It was really important that I did have some proper downtime,” she says. “Over the last few years, the minutes and tournaments have really increased, so I needed to look after my body and get myself in a good place mentally. I shut down for about two-and-a-half weeks and just enjoyed time with friends and family, which was lovely, but by the end of it, I was ready to start exercising again, I didn’t know what to do with myself.

“I quite enjoy training on my own over the summer, you get to know your best routines and habits. I often go on holiday with my family too and train out there on the family holiday, which is nice because everyone wants to get involved. I just took time for myself too, being a normal 27-year-old girl, going on holidays. I went to the England v Panama game in New York and got to be a fan and be around that buzz of the World Cup and I had Toonie’s [England teammate Ella Toone] hen do and wedding, which was amazing”.

Russo had a standout year in 2025-26, many believe her game moved up a level for club and country. How does she reflect on it after some time off?

“I’m obviously pleased with my season for Arsenal and England from a personal point of view but, ultimately, I’ll always judge it on the trophies that we win,” she says.

“We’ve learned a lot as a team over the last couple of years at Arsenal, but are really hungry for the new season. We’ve made it quite clear that we want to do everything that we can to be the team most capable of winning the WSL and Renée [Slegers] has set the standard really high this pre-season. We’ve got seven new players that have come in, we’ve got a squad that’s raring to go, the competition in it is really high.

“So yeah, I feel happy but now I really want to continue to push on with Arsenal and England and win some trophies.”