Strictly star Karen Carney's 'special' meeting with Prince William summed up what he's like

The pressure is on for former England Women's footballer Karen Carneyas she graces the Strictly Come Dancing dancefloor again this weekend, having already dazzled in the opening show of the new series.

The ex-Lioness left judges and viewers gobsmacked as she bagged a whopping 31 points out of 40 for her jive with professional dance partner Carlos Gu. This score catapulted her to the top of the leaderboard, becoming the first footballer to achieve that feat since John Barnes in 2007 and making her an early favourite to clinch the coveted glitterball trophy.

While it has emerged that Carney had dance training as a child before switching her focus to football, her talent on the dancefloor took many fans by surprise as she added yet another string to her bow.

The 38-year-old is England's third-most capped women's player of all time, boasting 144 appearances for the national team in a 14-year international career spanning from 2005 to 2019. Playing as a winger and midfielder, she also ranks among the Lionesses' highest ever goalscorers, having found the back of the net 33 times on international duty.

Having started her career with Birmingham City, she went on to also play for Arsenal, Chelsea and Chicago Red Stars. While she clinched two FA Cups with Birmingham and Chelsea, the majority of her triumphs came with the Gunners, where she added three Premier League National Division titles, three more FA Cups, a Premier League Cup and a UEFA Cup to her impressive haul of trophies.

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Today, Carney is a respected pundit in both the women's and men's game, having established a successful broadcasting career with outlets including TNT Sports, Sky Sports, ITV and Amazon Prime.

After being made an MBE in the 2017 New Year Honours, she received further recognition for her contributions to football with an OBE in last year's Birthday Honours. That trip to Windsor Castle saw the former Birmingham star collect her award from Prince William, who is famously a die-hard supporter of the Blues' bitter rivals, Aston Villa.

Upon meeting the prince, Carney admitted she "gave some banter" to the future monarch about the rivalry, but he had taken it in good faith, showing his true colours as a "massive" football fan.

"It's been in the diary for some time and then only as I walked up and got into the room I got a little bit emotional and then it became quite real," she said after receiving her OBE.

"The one common language that we can all speak is football, so had a good football chat with [Prince William] which was cool and had a really good time.

"I don't want to be disrespectful to any of the others, but I've met Prince William before when I played for England, met him various times. To receive my OBE from him was special. He's a massive football fan so we just chatted about football really.

"Everyone knows I'm a massive Birmingham City fan, and obviously Prince William is a Villa fan," she added, noting that she received her award on the same day as Villa's Champions League match against Bayern Munich.

"There's a big Villa game tonight, which he's going to. So I did my dad proud and said look I'm gonna give you some banter about the Villa and make sure you know I'm a Blues fan, which I've told him many times before. He's a massive football fan, Lionesses and men's football as well - it was great to chat with him."

Carney will be looking to follow up her stunning start to her Strictly campaign on Saturday as she and Gu take to the dancefloor again, this time performing the tango to Dua Lipa's 'Training Season'.