We Are Chelsea - Sonia and Erin join The Female Athlete Project!

Episode Date: August 12, 2026

This is We are Chelsea, the official podcast of Chelsea Women, brought to you in association with Skoda, the official car partner of Chelsea Women and proud supporters of women's sport. https://www.skoda.co.uk/Sonia Bompastor and Erin Cuthbert are here for a special collaboration with our friends down under, The Female Athlete Project! They give an insight into the preseason tour so far and how important it is to get the team working together ahead of the new season. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome back to We Are Chelsea, the official podcast of Chelsea Women, brought to you in association with SCODA, the official partner of Chelsea, women and proud supporters of women's sport. I'm Erin Cuthbert and today we're doing something a bit different. We've collaborated with the Female Athlete Project who kindly hosted us in Sydney with lots of you guys there to chat all things Chelsea and all things pre-season tour. Thanks for having us. This is We Are Chelsea with the Female Athlete Project. very well behaved. Everyone's silent as soon as we stepped up. I feel like there's a bit of anticipation in the room. Oh my gosh. It's so, so cool to see so many of your faces joining

us here tonight. Welcome for the Female Athlete Project and we are Chelsea Live podcast. It's exciting. Do we get a round of applause for that? That is a strong start. I'm feeling good about you lot. This is going to be a fun night. Before we begin, I want to acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation as a traditional custodians of the land and acknowledge the incredible contribution that First Nations athletes have made to sport in this country for many, many years. For those that don't know our faces, we're going to introduce each other. This is Bez. Bez, I don't know why I'm reading about you, but here we go. I know you quite well, Bez, but she's been committed to

grassroots women's rugby for nearly three decades. Well, actually, a bit over three. Are we 31 years now? Your involvement at, yeah. She's a beating heart of the Waringa Rats and recently even had the inaugural Women's Change Room named after her, which was pretty incredible. She's, yeah, she's also a part of the seven-time championship winning New South Wales, Waratars women's rugby team, which is epic as well.

I like you guys. I want to keep talking. That's enough. That's well enough. Chloe Dalton is a little bit more of a recognisable face. I hope for all of you. She is a three-time professional sport person. time. She played three different professional sports, having represented in basketball, rugby and AFLW. She won a gold medal in Rio in 2016 and she started the female athlete project in 2020 because she was jack of not reading about women's sport in the media. Our page is now growing to over 350,000

followers across our channels, which is incredible. And we firmly, firmly believe in the power of sport in being able to change the way that women and girls are perceived in society more broadly. and having events like this are such huge moments to bring together the community and we're so thankful for you all being here tonight. But let's get into the real business of why we're all here. Bez, would you like to do some introductions? Absolutely. Our first guest is someone who really needs very little introduction to Chelsea fans.

She's a true Chelsea legend, a serial winner and one of the biggest personalities in the squad. Since arriving from Glasgow City, she's lifted an incredible 18 trophies while wearing blue. She's become one of the team's leaders on and off the field and continues to set the standard every single season. Please give a huge Sydney welcome to Erin Cuthbert. Wow. Oh my God. That was crazy.

I just want to listen to your accent. I love Scottish accent. In joining Erin, someone who has already made an extraordinary impact at Chelsea as a player, she reached the very top of the game, winning the UEFA Women's Champions League, and earning 156 caps for France across an incredible international career. As a manager, she made history by becoming the first person ever to win the UEFA Women's Champions League as both a player and a coach.

In her very first season at Chelsea, she guided the club to a remarkable domestic treble. Please give a huge welcome to Chelsea women's head coach, Sonia Bonpasta. Welcome to you both. Erin, I'm glad you made it up. We're quite high up on that stage. That was quite a big step up for you. I'm glad you made it up for you. I was half my head. How are you guys settling in? We know you've been in New Zealand. How are you settling into Sydney?

You had a trip to the zoo this afternoon. How did it go? Yeah, I got really, really close to a koala bear, which I absolutely loved. I mean, these things are, you dream about these things, right? So, yeah, it was great to see it up live. Saw the Sydney sunset as well, which was pretty gorgeous. I mean, you guys are so lucky to live in a city like this. But yeah, it's being good apart from the jet lag. Guys, I'm struggling. I'm not going to lie. I'm struggling.

Is it how are you going, Sonia, with the jet lag? It's about a two-hour time difference from New Zealand, but the further jet lag from which is... But it still makes a difference, the two hours from New Zealand, but I'm not on film, so that's fine. I can struggle more than the players. More importantly, they are the players. And so, yeah, I think I'm so happy to be here,

and I think even if sometimes jet lag is a bit difficult, but I'm not really thinking about it. And is it your first time here in Sydney? Not for me. I came a long time ago in 2001 when I was a French international player, and we came here in January, which was summertime. So, yeah, I had the chance to enjoy the hot weather here. We went to Brisbane, and, yeah, we played three friendly games.

It was really nice. I believe it's going to warm up tomorrow. Yeah. It was a bit gross today. Sorry, about it. Sorry. Yeah. Yeah, sort of goes.

You got what you asked for. You've got me on the pod, so you've got to tick all of me. So tours like this are always really interesting because I think, you know, it's a mix of hard work and a chance for the squad to spend some time together away from Cobbon. You're one of the senior players, Erin, in the group now. How important are these trips for building that, you know, relationships, especially with some new signings in the squad this year? Yeah, I think it's important.

first and foremost to build a foundation. There's a lot of new faces, staff and players. So we want to familiarise ourselves with each other and we play a lot of games during the season. But I do think you can be like ships in the night. We do recovery after a game and then we go home and it's very individualised. You have to really focus on yourself

and how you make yourself right to be the best version of yourself because you've got a game again in two days. So I think these trips and, you know, this 24-hour time together that we get to have is really, really good because we're spending time at dinners. We're not just eating for the sake of eating and going up to our rooms because we've got a game.

So having that time to bond and all get together as a group and have a laugh, go to these activities. You know, because this season can be really, really stressful. And I think this is a trip which is, you know, very much focused on football, but also just the enjoyment, like being in a great place. We are the luckiest people in the world to have the job that we have. So to enjoy that every day, we get some of your best mates.

How special is that? I think it's such an undervalued part of team sport is how you can build some of the best friendships you can ever have. And these, like you said, these opportunities to spend a long period together, absolutely priceless. Totally, without a doubt, obviously I've grown up through Chelsea with some of my best mates and I've had a great time, met some of the best people that I'll have ever met and our best friends along the way and, you know, that is the beauty of football.

Like, yeah, you play football and we have the fans, but people forget you actually meet some of your best friends for life here and I feel lucky every day that I get to do this as a job. Love that. And Sonia, your perspective as a manager, what do you think the team gains from going on tours like this? Yeah, I think for me, I really value the preseason and the opportunity to come on tour.

I think you spoke a lot about the cohesion, dynamic of the team. I'm a person who really cares about players, but also humans. As a head coach, I need to manage staff players and coming on tour like that, it's always the opportunity to build the chemistry. I think Erin just mentioned that, but we spend more time with each other

rather than with our own family. So I think if you want to have success, a club like Chelsea, you need to make sure the players understand each other on the pitch but also off the pitch. And when you get to a point where you have your teammate who is also your friend, When you are on the pitch, you want to fight for each other, and that's really important at the highest level.

I want to ask you, Sonia, about your coaching style when you're navigating that balance, where it's, you know, it's a big international trip. I reflect on my time as an athlete. When I was playing rugby sevens, I remember this trip to London. And my coach was so paranoid about us not walking too much or spending too much time on our legs that we were only allowed to do a drawing competition. It was the worse. Literally you can travel around the world and he made us sketch the London Tower Bridge or something. At what stage of professionalism are we at in terms of how much do you need to put rules in place

or how much trust can you put in these professional athletes now to manage themselves and their loads and mental preparation as well? Yeah, I think it's important what you just mentioned. Our job is to perform every day. Performance is always the priority. So I have around me a lot of staff, who are able to support me and to support the players. As a manager, I think I really care, as I said, about the players, but also the humans.

I'm coaching adults, so I think it's important to find the right balance. For me, I had the opportunity to play in US, and I think playing in that country, I also understood it's important for the players to be responsible. And I think it's a right balance between trusting them, educating them, especially the young ones, about what performance means and what do they need to do every day to perform at their best. And just making sure you provide what they need, but also in the same time they need to know what is the best for them in order for them to perform. But I have some really good examples of athletes who we played Champions League Finals

and they were having candies hard time. And they were one of the best players in the world. So sometimes your culture can be different. As a manager, you need to understand. I have players who are all international, coming from different countries, different cultures, and I need to make sure everyone gets what she needs in order to pull for. I do love a halftime candy, I've got to say.

So, see, and you are one of the best, right? Sonia. Take it, take it. I will take that. Thank you. I'd love to ask you about your leadership style, and that transition from player to coach. Like, it's such a huge thing to be able to manage people and personalities like you talked about.

Like, how much work did you have to do on yourself to become such a great coach? Yeah, I think I'm someone who is always listening advice and I'm always open to receive feedback. I know, like, I have experience, competence, but also I'm always keen to receive feedback from people around me. I think in our days it's really difficult for a head coach to see everything and being able to manage everything so that's why it's important for you to have around you the right team but again I think I learn a lot I grow a lot as a head coach I started when I retired to be head of the academy in you in my former club I had that responsibility for Hours and I think yeah I could learn a lot and yeah I was also coaching a really good team in France Lyon I learned a lot from that experience

actually was not always easy because some of the players I was coaching, I played with them. So it's never easy to be in the other side. And yeah, what I want to say is like coaching and managing people, it's never easy. But for me the most important, when you are direct honest and you try your best, you always have a good product back. Erin, you've done a few preseason tours now. Is there one teammate who is guaranteed to keep everyone entertained when you're on tour? Can I see myself? I was going to say in New York.

Me. Okay. But seriously, this last week, Melvin Mallard, I have to say, every time she gets on the bus, there's a microphone at the side. She puts the microphone to her mouth and starts singing this little tune in front of the whole bus when she comes on. I would say she's got all the attributes now to be the team joker.

She's your understudy. She might be. Not as good, though. And is there a teammate that you absolutely don't want a room with, if you share rooms, that is? Oft. Oof. O'est knowing.

I know, I was just thinking, who likes to sleep all the time? Because I don't. Kadaisha. Oh, yeah, Kadesha. She'd be like, get the lights off at 7pm. I would not be having that. Champions League's on it here.

Let me live. Let me live. I love that. I love that. Sonia, you've experienced football all over the world as a player and a coaches we were just talking about. Is there anything that surprised you so far about New Zealand and Australia?

I think the culture. I think Erin mentioned it, but I think you guys are so lucky to live in a country where the culture is so strong. We spoke about in a team environment, culture is also really, really important. You need to make sure your players

buy into what you do every day. So, yeah, that's probably what impressed me most. This podcast is brought to you by SCADA, the official car partner of Chelsea women and proud supporter of women's sport. It's football season. Time for after work training, muddy boots and early morning weekend games.

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I'm sure you've had so many powerful interactions with the community and I think that's one of the most beautiful things about sport and about football. Are there any fan interactions that have stood out to you both along? your journey. Are you going to see it? I'm always grateful to interact with the fans. I think Erin just said before, we are lucky to do the best job in the world and I think part of it is being able to meet the fans after the games during open training sessions in this event tonight and that's why also we do our job just to bring some joy to people and

try to entertain them on the pitch. I'm not interested in them anymore. Are you waiting for my one? Do you know what my one's going to be? Well, I saw you plan to say it already, so I'm ready for this. Barcelona? Do you remember? Thank you.

You know. When they thought I was you. We spoke earlier about it, no? Yeah. He was like, Sonia, Sonia, photo. I was like, he was saying it in Spanish. I went, no, no, no, sorry Sonia, I saw you, Erin. It's actually good for me.

You are a lot younger than me, so it's good. How do you think it is for me? It's what I'm saying. Yeah, that was an interaction that I may be not proud of, but it was a funny one nonetheless. You know, the girls, I've still never heard the end of it. So there has to be a new one. To be fair, there was a new one today.

Yeah, today. So I am out of the water, can I add, for the worst interaction, thinking they're the head coach, today we were at a sort of welcome at the zoo. And he says, are you Sonia to show Canuskin? Are you the manager? So I think I'm now out of the water because I don't think we're going to stop talking about that all trip.

Love it. When I think of global women's sport and clubs and organizations that have really changed the game, Chelsea is one of the first that come to mind. What does it feel like to be part of such a huge organisation and to kind of travel to the other side of the world and see the amount? You know, we sold out, had to get more room in this venue, sold out again, to see the demand on the other side of the world for what you do and the football that you play. Yeah, I mean, this is mental. Honestly, this is an unbelievable, overwhelming amount of support and this is one of the reasons why we come here because, yes, it's on the other side of the world.

We're sorry that the kickoffs are like 4, 5 a.m. as well. So, you know, to give you guys this access is unbelievable and it makes our job so good that we have so many fans across the world. And now you guys can see it. You can now get up at 4 and 5 in the morning and think, I met them, I saw them live, and it grows this fan culture even more. So, yeah, to have this all over the world,

you know, I never, never, ever expected that I would be in the position that I am today. So I feel very lucky. I'll never, ever take it for granted. And every time I play, I just hope I'll represent the shirt really well. That's beautiful. Erin, so let's look ahead to the preseason.

You're welcome. Let's look ahead to the preseason game against the A-League All-Stars in a couple of days. I'm sure everyone here has been wanting a long time, as you said, to see this team play in the flesh. How excited are you to get out there? I'm really excited to watch the girls. I wasn't part of the squad the other day in Auckland and thought it was a very momentous game. Felt like a momentous night.

And I think Sydney's going to be even bigger. So I feel very lucky to be a part of it. And I think to play against the best players in Australia is a really cool game for us. a really good test in preseason. So on that, Sonia, when it comes to these matches, what are you looking to learn about the group in contests like this? I think for me, these games help us to prepare

for important games coming and the Champions League and the League. I think always the opportunity to get minutes for everyone and to see how everyone is performing, but also the opportunity to represent the brand. I think we are part of the growth of the game. I think we want to play always at our best level and we want to be proud of ourselves and we want to make the fans proud. So the best way to do that is to go on pitch and to give our whole to perform at the best and hopefully everyone will enjoy the game,

the performance, the result and yeah, we will bring some joy and enjoyment. And for those people who might watch you for the first time in the flesh or at all, as Erin touched on the game time, sometimes for Australians, are a little bit brutal, so it might be their first time ever watching Chelsea. What's something you hope that they take away about

what Chelsea women stand for and are all about? I think, as I said, our mentality to be always willing to win. I think that's important, but also when we come on pitch, we want to give our role. And I think football is a game, and maybe sometimes people forget.

I think most of the time, I always try to remind my players, get on the pitch, and most importantly, enjoy the game, enjoy scoring goals, enjoy celebrating together. Because at the end of the game, yeah, that's what you have to take. How different is your approach when you're playing a team that have quite a different style of football and Australian style of football? How much is your preparation change from an analysis and preparation point of view? Yeah, I think in preseason, focus is fully on us, my team.

After when we start the league and the Champions League game, obviously, yeah, I have my analyst who really prepare the game and give me all the information we need to make sure we go on the game really prepared. But, yeah, even if most of the game, we always try to focus more on ourselves. In preseason, it's, yeah, 100% ourselves. I've done any kind of research on the A-League All-Stars team? Who are we looking out for? Well, I was not specifically players, but I was speaking to Katie McCabe who also played for Arsenal against the same elite goals, same concept. She said it was a really, really tough game. So it's one of those ones where you're not quite a team, but it's your chance to get on the shot window.

When I played for Glasgow City and we played Chelsea in the Champions League, I thought, wow, what a great opportunity to be seen on a European level. So I'm sure those players will be thinking, this is maybe my chance, given the success of Australian players that we've seen in the WSL, they now see a pathway and an opportunity to put themselves in the short window for the gaffer here. Or you as it may be. Maybe. Question for you, Erin. I find this one really hard to answer myself because it could go in any direction. but you guys have broken so many barriers, really challenged what it looks like for women's sport and women's football.

Where do you kind of see that next level of growth coming from or what's kind of the ideal next step for you for women's football? I like that. Whoever just said Champions League. Absolutely. Ambition is a Champions League. But as a club and to where we want to go, having the ambition that we are now playing all home games at Stanford Bridge.

the next aim is now selling that out how do we walk out to a full house every single week and then have the fans behind us is now the 12th player like how do we now make Sanford Bridge our fortress because you know King's Medal was that for so long and I feel like we're now ready to take the next step in Stanford Bridge is that so I would love to be walking out to full stadiums and you know making the putting the fear of life and the opposition when they walk in at Stamford Bridge that they know that they're having a game. And for you, Sonia, the same question. What do you kind of say is that next dream step for Chelsea or for women's football? Yeah, I would probably say the same as Erin. I would have maybe also

you know, women's athletes, they are so different from men's and I think in the last few years we put a lot of investigation around how can we best support the women's in football and in every sport. So the performance, the science around the woman body, I think it's also something for me where we can all improve and there is a lot to improve because, yeah, we don't have a lot of research around the woman body and all these things, physiology and things like that. So I think, yeah, that's probably also part of the next step. I got to chat to Ellie Carpenter on the podcast just the other day and she was talking about how proud she felt and how proud her family back home feel about the fact that she's now fluent in French. I wanted to ask you, does she still, when she

speaks French, still sound like a country kid from Australia when she's speaking in French? Yeah, I have to say yes. A lot. Probably the same as when I speak English, you can listen to my strong French accent, but yeah, but it's lovely. But to give me a bit of love as well, what has she brought to the group and what is it meant to reunite with her as well at Chelsea? Yeah, I was really pleased when we signed Ellie to Chelsea. I think she's a great player, but also, yeah, she brings a lot of energy and joy in the locker room. She's a really happy person, and I think it's good to have the players and persons like her in the squad.

Can we please put our hands together, massive, massive round of applause for Sonia and Erin. Thank you, Stowe. The wave, the wave, the wave, the wave, the wave. Go on. One more, one more. You're so good. You're so good. And now she's singing a song.

No, no, no. Do you want to hang around? Do you want a front row question? Do you want an audience question? Yeah, I reckon. Front row, you lot of keen. Have you got an audience question? If we send a microphone down your way,

have you got an audience question? Pressure's on. It's not a koala bear. Oh. That's rough. It wasn't a drop there. That's rough. I say Scotland, but it's half we across the world.

I'm sorry. Okay, so you did hear my comment about Champions League. Obviously that's our, what we call it, the White Whale, what we're missing. What do you think is the step Chelsea needs to take? Do you finally get that trophy that word, all desperate for? It's a great question. you know, if we all knew the answer then we'd probably be sitting with a title

but honestly like it requires so many things coming together during the season and it is about small margins we saw in the quarter final last year the small margins we had maybe with VAR and previous seasons we've had injury problems and

issues we form like I wouldn't say last year I had the best performance over the course of the season myself so I think it's for me it's about everything I lining, everybody hitting top form at the best time. It's not always easy to achieve, and that's maybe where we've been falling off. But it's the hardest thing to do. It really is the hardest thing to do. Remember, one team in Europe win it, and everybody is investing.

You know, Chelsea is right up there, but there are teams who are also investing, and we just got to keep moving with it. But I do think it does require a wee bit of luck on your side, but as players, we need to all take a little bit of luck. look in and think how can we be the best that we can absolutely be in time for when it really counts but I personally hate talking about winning the Champions League when we've no qualified

because I hate to jinx it because we've had a year before when we started no, you're absolutely fine I'll no blame you but honestly for me because we didn't get out of the groups against Willsberg and everybody kept saying how do you win the Champions League and I hate to say it

it is honestly one game at a time and it is a process and we are about to get the Champions League qualifying draw, I believe tomorrow, I don't know where the time difference, I don't know what day it is, to be honest, but we're about to get it, so I think then we'll now have a focus in a process

and it is game by game because there are some tough draws in that group. I think that's a perfect way to wrap it up. Thank you so much. Great question. Thank you so much again, Erin Sonia, Sonia, please. Thank you, guys. Thank you, guys. Thank you.

Thank you for having us. Thank you for having this. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. I'll go this way so you guys. Thank you so much. Thank you everyone.

Thanks guys. Watch us set. See you Wednesday. I will. I'll go get the present five. Yes. All right. Bairz is going to,

you guys, great crowd. You have 10 out of 10 new lot, right? Thank you for listening to We Are Chelsea. Chelsea. The official podcast of Chelsea Women brought to you in association with SCADA, the official car partner for Chelsea Women and proud supporters of women's sport. I hope you enjoyed this special episode with her friends from the Female Athlete Project.