Karen Carney is her true self on Strictly Come Dancing: ‘I don’t want it to ever end’ – The Athletic
Karen Carney was 14 when she made her first-team debut with Birmingham City. She played 144 times for England over a 14-year international career yet, despite the longevity and success, she felt it ended too quickly.
It is why, as she prepares for a monumental Strictly Come Dancing weekend in Blackpool, a seaside resort in England’s north west, the former winger is not letting a single moment pass her by during her time on the BBC’s most popular entertainment show.
“My regret from football was not enjoying it enough and not being more present in the moment,” Carney tells The Athletic during a break from rehearsals in the lead-up to Saturday’s live episode.
The 38-year-old has been one of the standout celebrities of the series, the show’s 23rd, topping the leaderboard in the first week — the first footballer to do so since Liverpool great John Barnes in 2007 — with a jive to Blondie’s One Way Or Another, and then being awarded 38 points by the judges for a Peaky Blinders-inspired Argentine Tango.
Given her achievements on the pitch — all those England caps, playing in four World Cups, four European Championships and an Olympic Games, five FA Cup winners’ medals, winning a quadruple with Arsenal in the 2006-07 season — it is unsurprising that Carney has shone on Strictly. As rehearsals are from 8am to 4pm daily, her work ethic is a contributing factor.
Carney is one of seven remaining celebrities who have made it to Blackpool Tower Ballroom, home of the country’s preeminent dance floor.
Each year, the Blackpool show is a milestone — it represents the remaining contestants going beyond the halfway stage in the series, as they head out on the road. It is the only time the programme is not broadcast from its usual base at Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire, just north of London.
But just as in her football career, Carney is refusing to look too far ahead.
“I don’t want it to ever end,” she says. “My aim was that I didn’t want to go out in week one. I never thought I’d get to Blackpool, so I’m really grateful to Carlos (Gu, her dance partner in the show) for really pushing me and getting me to this point.”
Carney, now a respected football pundit and a columnist for The Athletic who in recent years has received an MBE and an OBE for services to the game, has used Strictly as not just a break from football but as a confidence booster, too.
“It’s been the first opportunity in 30 years where I’ve not done football,” she says. “You’re trained a certain way, and it’s not who you really are sometimes. When you go on the pitch, you play and try to win, but it’s actually when you come off the pitch, that’s who you really are. Strictly has really shown people, and reminded me, who I really am.
“It’s been really refreshing to step out of my comfort zone and be in a safe environment to do it. It is a challenge, but I don’t find it stressful. It’s just an amazing experience, and I’m humbled to have this opportunity.
“Hopefully, I’m showing who I am. When you do football, you play or you do punditry, it’s not really a true reflection of who you are. You do your job. But I’ve shown my true self on Strictly and shown my vulnerabilities and my lack of confidence at times.
“I’ve been really open and honest about things and that’s been really nice just to go and enjoy myself.”
The former Arsenal, Chicago Red Stars and Chelsea player went to one of the live shows last year and promised herself that, if the opportunity arose, she would not hesitate in saying yes to appearing on a show that has become must-watch viewing for millions of Britons in the run-up to Christmas.
As a child, Carney was diagnosed with Scheuermann’s disease, a curve in her spine. It makes it difficult to keep her posture straight, a crucial element of ballroom dancing. After their American Smooth routine last weekend, Gu broke down in tears because of how much work Carney had done in training to perfect the dance.
“I couldn’t have been paired with someone more opposite to me,” Carney says. “We were honest about that at the start, but it’s a dream pairing because he’s exactly what I need.
“My aim was to grow my confidence and show a different side to myself. Carlos is the only person in the cast I believe could do that for me. I can’t hide behind football. I have to dive into his world and he makes me step out of my comfort zone, in a safe way. And that’s where you really grow as a person.”
And while she did have some dance lessons as a child, there was never any question of what direction her life would take. “I’m a footballer, I’m not a dancer,” Carney laughs. “Carlos would say I’m more of a mover than a dancer.”
Karen Carney has carved out a successful career as a pundit after retiring in 2019 (Julian Finney/Getty Images)
But what connects her past to her present is her footballer-like celebrations at the end of each dance, and that she knows she will have to “detrain” after Strictly, just as she did when her playing career ended with retirement in 2019 at age 31.
“It’s the closest feeling to playing a game,” says Carney, who has yet to be in a dance-off — where the judges vote off one of the two celebrities whose performances got the fewest viewer votes that week.
“I haven’t had it for six years, the euphoria. And not all my dances have gone well, but I’ve enjoyed them, I’ve attacked them, and I’m proud of that. I celebrate them at the end as if I’ve scored a goal, or the team just won, and we’re through to the next round. It’s the closest replication of a football match.
“I don’t think people speak about it enough, the detraining of learned behaviour. You’re not a professional any more, you don’t have to train every single day, you can eat differently. It took me about four years to get off that pro cycle, and now I’ve jumped back into it in a similar format. I’m going to have to detrain off this as well and slowly wean back into normal life.”
If there was one dance equivalent to a 4-3-3 attacking formation, Carney picks the Charleston she danced in week seven, for which she received a perfect 10 from judge Motsi Mabuse. For a park-the-bus, defensive style, she questions whether there is one at all. “They said to me the waltz was slow. It wasn’t slow at all. There’s been no slow dances,” she says.
As for the judging panel, the comments have been mostly positive and constructive. But in week four, Craig Revel Horwood, Strictly’s pantomime villain, awarded a four for her Cha-Cha, while the others, Mabuse, Shirley Ballas and Anton Du Beke, all raised the number seven card.
Carney, who discusses and gives opinions on the performances of footballers for a living, has found being on the receiving end enjoyable.
“They have a job to do and I respect them for doing it,” she says. “I’ve just got to take it on the chin, good or bad.
“I’m not the finished article, I’m not a professional dancer, so whatever they’re saying is probably right, and they want me to get better, that’s their job. And I want to improve. So, of course I’m going to listen.”
