Parkinson was born in Singapore to an English father and a Japanese mother, and is eligible to represent both nations, as well as Portugal, where she spent most of her playing career.
She was with Leixoes from the age of 10 and had some involvement with Benfica before breaking into Valadares Gaia’s first team in the 2023-24 season.
Since the age of 12, Parkinson has been working with a mindset coach, developing skills to handle pressure and expectation off the pitch, and to improve her leadership, decision-making and awareness on it.
She connected with Martin Fairn, founder of Gazing Performance, who has worked with a number of elite athletes including the New Zealand men’s rugby team and former England cricketer Ashley Giles.
Fairn was approached by Parkinson’s father, Richard, and quickly began working with Erica and her brother Dennis.
“I knew straight away that Erica had a determination not everybody has,” Fairn told BBC Sport.
“I said to Erica: ‘What do you want to do?’ And she said: ‘I’d like to play football for England.’ That was how it all kicked off.
“It’s relatively rare someone that young seeks out mindset training. Do they need it? There won’t be one person who couldn’t benefit from it.
“In football particularly, it’s viewed as a problem that needs fixing rather than a skill that needs developing.”
Parkinson and Fairn have worked together for over five years, catching up in person at the end of each season and holding regular meetings over Zoom.
In a pre-season session before the 2025-26 campaign – which BBC Sport has seen summary notes of – Parkinson focused on raised expectations and on developing more clarity of her role on the pitch.
On her flight to her first senior Lionesses camp in March, Parkinson wrote a list of the pressures and emotions she could feel – a common process with Fairn.
They reflected on how she might react to the challenges, what her ambitions were during those moments and how she could prepare.
The list included:
The honour of being called up
Anticipation of walking into a camp with star-studded names
Increased intensity of training
Behaviours off the pitch
Media attention and increased scrutiny
Performing in training
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