When asked to compare the Women’s Super League (WSL) with the elite level of the game in the USA, Holiday thinks the standard is higher in the NWSL, for now.

“I think the NWSL [has the edge] right now because of how close all the teams are and how they compete,” she said.

“There’s more disparity in the WSL, but other than that I think it’s a highly respected and coveted league and there’s a lot of attraction for USA players to want to play there.”

Since the WSL’s inception in 2013, it has become one of the best leagues in the world, attracting some of the game’s top talents.

In the past few years some of the most high-profile stars in US soccer have turned out for English clubs, including Holiday’s former national team-mate Carli Lloyd at Manchester City, and Alex Morgan at Tottenham Hotspur.

This week, USA defender Naomi Girma has agreed terms to join Chelsea on a long-term deal for a world-record transfer fee.

All a far cry from Holiday’s early playing days, when the path to success for top female footballers was through the United States and few, if any, went in the opposite direction.

It is partly why Holiday spent her entire career in the US, where she helped FC Kansas City to two league titles before retiring in 2015. In 2023 she was inducted into the NWSL Hall of Fame.

As our conversation draws to a close Holiday ponders what the future could look like for women’s football. “I think the sky’s the limit,” she said.

“I believe people care about women’s sports, and now they have seen the value and what it looks like when we properly invest in women’s sports.

“It was never that we were not equal. It was never that we were incapable of what the men did. It was that we didn’t have the marketing dollars, we weren’t shown on prime-time television. There were so many factors to it.

“Now people are saying ‘Hey, we need to invest in women!’ I think that’s going to continue to grow. I don’t think that we’re going to let anyone down.”