Last week, we had the pleasure of welcoming back Alumna and Professional Footballer Taylor Warren. In conversation with Zak Elbekri, Head of Football, Taylor spoke to our Year 7, Year 8, and Year 9s about her memories of her time at Surbiton High School and her life as a Professional Footballer with Brighton and Hove Albion.
Taylor spent five years at Surbiton High School. From the age of eight years old, she played for Chelsea FC, where she was regarded as one of the club’s most promising young players, and also represented England at youth level.
Only last year, Taylor completed Year 11 at Surbiton High School. Although she was offered a further two-year contract with Chelsea, she chose to join Brighton & Hove Albion in pursuit of greater opportunities to play first-team football. As a result, she relocated closer to Brighton to continue her development.
Since joining Brighton, Taylor has made her first-team debut at the age of 16, coming on as a substitute against Charlton Athletic. She has also represented England Under-19s in the UEFA European Championship qualifiers in Estonia, playing against Estonia, Greece and Austria.
Taylor’s advice to our players is to keep it simple and just be yourself. When asked by one of the pupils on how to get noticed by future talent scouts and coaches, she suggested that attention to detail could make a difference and help you stand out. Taylor’s advice on how to handle match nerves was to get in some safe, short, and simple passes early on in the game to help settle the nerves, and then you can really go for it.
Taylor shared what it is like to live with a host family when she started at Brighton, and how she had to change families partway through the year. She shared her match day preparation of pancakes, which the pupils decided they would try to adopt as well. When asked what has changed with her diet from Surbiton to Brighton, she confessed that she eats a lot fewer party rings and jelly tots. She agreed that her diet has significantly improved since joining Brighton.
Taylor shared what a typical day at Brighton would be like. She told us how the team eats breakfast together, before the first training session, followed by a rest. Lunch is eaten together again, followed by time for the coaches to speak to players individually about different aspects of their game. A second training session is held in the afternoon. Training sessions can be either on the pitch or strength and conditioning in the gym. Dinner is back with her host family or with a teammate. She confessed she is pretty tired at the end of each day.
Taylor answered some rapid-fire questions from the girls.
Favourite Male player – Lionel Messi
Favourite Female player – Aitana Bonmatí from Barcelona
Toughest Opponent – Maisie Symonds from Brighton
Best Surbiton Memory – scoring the winning goal in an ESFA final
Best Surbiton Trip – Porto Football tour, the coaching sessions, fixtures and paintballing
We thank Taylor for taking the time to return to Surbiton and to share her memories, career and insights with our football teams. We wish her the best of luck with the upcoming season and her promising career ahead.