EXCLUSIVE: England & Arsenal legend Kelly Smith talks coaching Lionesses star Alessia Russo and praise from USWNT icon Mia Hamm in INDIVISA's Box to Box

The legendary striker won the Champions League, played at an Olympics and produced an iconic Women's World Cup celebration in an incredible career

If you have the opportunity to have the greatest player in the history of English women’s football help your team improve, why wouldn’t you take it? That’s exactly what Arsenal did earlier this year when they brought England legend Kelly Smith back to the club as an assistant coach — and now she’s looking to help Alessia Russo shine in attack.

Smith is widely regarded as the Lionesses’ greatest ever footballer and, in between spells across the pond where she won huge praise from United States women’s national team icon Mia Hamm, it was with Arsenal where she enjoyed great club success, most notably winning the UEFA Women’s Champions League, then known as the UEFA Women's Cup, in 2007.

Now, Smith is back with the Gunners and her job is to help Russo and co make the north London club better and better. “It's super special to be back at the club that I played for for so many years,” Smith told INDIVISA on the latest episode of Box to Box. “When I retired in 2016, I thought I'd just be watching them as a fan and doing punditry work and going to the games, but I'm back in a different capacity now as an assistant coach and I'm really loving it. I'm getting to work with world-class players.

“My main focus is working with Alessia Russo, Vivianne Miedema and Stina Blackstenius because I was a striker and that's where my love lies. I'm working with them on a daily basis, trying to improve their goal-scoring opportunities, watching video with them and just finding that one or two percent that can make them better in game situations.”

There weren’t many better than Smith back in her playing