International Women's Day 2023: Charlton's head of men’s first-team player care Tracey Leaburn is beating heart of club

The Leaburn name is synonymous with Charlton Athletic. Former striker Carl Leaburn spent 11 years at the club and his son, Miles, is the latest academy product to light up the first team. But it is Tracey Leaburn who is now the beating heart of the club.

As Charlton's head of men's first-team player care, her day-to-day tasks include making sure managers, players and their families are taken care of. But in her eight years with the Addicks, she has become far more than just a caretaker, weaving herself into the fabric of the club.

It comes as a shock to no one more than Leaburn, who sat down with Sky Sports' Charlotte Marsh at Charlton's Sparrow's Lane training ground ahead of International Women's Day on March 8.

Despite being the wife of a footballer, Leaburn rarely watched the sport while her husband played, but her time at Charlton has seen her fall in love with the club and the game more than she anticipated.

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"I grew up on a farm, riding horses, so I had a country life", she explained. "Football was non-existent in my life until I met Carl when I was 23. I didn't really watch him play because I was always working, my job was busy on a Saturday so I rarely got to go, but we went out in the evenings with friends from football.

"I wouldn't say my interest in football really kicked in until I started to work here and, even then, matchdays weren't part of my job. It was some of the players who said 'are you going to come and watch us on Saturday' and I was like 'it's my day off, I need to do my food shop!'.

"But I started going and matchdays then started to become part of my job role and I've been hooked every since. I eat and breathe it, even Carl can't believe it. He says 'you never watched me play!' and I come home in a foul mood if we've lost."

It was helping another former Charlton player find a house that sent Leaburn on a path towards her current career. There are also multiple aspects that stretch beyond what her job title may suggest.

Leaburn explained: "I've always been known as an organiser, I had my own business and then one of the players from here, Roger Johnson, was having trouble trying to find accommodation.

"I helped him find a short-term lease and then another player had a problem. A position then opened up at the club, so I came in for an interview and I've been here over eight years now.

"My main role is to assist the players and the manager with anything that's off-pitch. It could be anything - finding them housing, booking hotels when they first arrive. With overseas players, it's things like bank accounts, car insurance, mobile phones, everything you need to settle in.

"I always treat the players how I would feel if that was my son. I like to educate them. I do check-ins with the players and teach them things like how to do council tax, gas and electric bills. I don't do it for them, I show them how to do it - even down to changing lightbulbs when they move out.

"It's more about having someone they can trust and come to if they have any issues, which is important as well. It doesn't matter how much money you have, everyone has issues and they need someone to talk to that they can trust.

"Over the years too, I've been involved with the annual Red, White and Black days. I've done a lot with having children coming to the stadium, 120 at a time, to learn about equality and diversity. My husband is black, my son is mixed heritage so I know about racism. My children have been subject to it and it's something that's got to change.

"I also organise the pre-season tour, rooming lists for the hotels, player appearances, signing of items. Over the years, I've assisted fans as well. I get a lot of requests for terminally ill fans to see how we can arrange things for them. We've had them in boxes or arranged for them to come and watch training. It's looking after the wives and families as well.

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"Every day is different, which I love about my job. You never know what's going to happen."

Charlton fans have a lot to be thankful to Leaburn for, but perhaps no more than in March 2020. The club had been taken over by East Street Investments, ending the torrid reign of Roland Duchatelet, but all was not what it seemed.

Majority shareholder Tahnoon Nimer had claimed chairman Matt Southall was spending the club's money on his own lavish lifestyle on Instagram. Leaburn then led a small team of staff - joined by former club journalist Olly Groome and safety officer Mick Everett - in confronting Southall in The Valley's boardroom.

It was a showdown that clearly demonstrates Leaburn's determination and commitment to protect the club she had come to love.

Reflecting on the incident, she said: "If I didn't have the passion for the club, I wouldn't have done what I did. It's very easy to put your blinkers on and do your job, but I'm not like that - I'm heart and soul.

"When the situation happened and I found out what was going on, it's something that you can't allow to happen - that a club can be put in jeopardy because people want to take the money and ruin something that means so much to fans.

"You can't take this away from people and I wasn't going to allow that to happen.

"I don't regret it at all. It's not something I would ever have planned, I'm not in a senior position. That probably helped because people didn't think I would do something like that and I never planned to and it's not me, I'm a very respectful person.

"But if you put at jeopardy something I love, whether that be this club or a staff member, a player, I will stand up to fight injustice."

She also holds an annual PSA testing day ahead of a game at The Valley, the last coming just a few weeks ago.

It encourages fans to take a blood test to detect prostate cancer, with Leaburn and first-team manager Dean Holden taking part in an I'm A Celebrity-style eating challenge to raise money for the Barry Kilby Prostate Cancer Appeal, named in memory of Leaburn's father who passed away from the disease.

She described the day as one of the greatest things she can do and the days have potentially saved a number of lives.

"It's developed as I've been here," she said. "For four years after my Dad died, I was grieving and angry. You see men that come to the football, but don't go to the doctors so it was me wanting to do something.

"This is the greatest thing to ever do - save fans' lives. It's an idea that I came up with and I'm really lucky that the club backed me. I don't think clubs would necessarily back someone who's not in a senior position and we've potentially saved up to 90 men's lives, if not more, from our testing days.

"Everyone works with me on it, from The Valley staff to the training ground, the players. Everybody is part of making the day such a success, which has helped me as a person as well to know something positive has come from something so terrible."

Not only does Leaburn have a unique role within Charlton, she has a unique role within football too. Women are still underrepresented within the men's game, especially in club roles.

Leaburn feels there have been times where she has been undermined due to her gender, but as a champion for women in football, does not feel gender should stop anyone from working in the industry.

She explained: "I do feel sometimes that I haven't been listened to and do I think 'is that being a woman?' It could also be down to my lower position rather than a senior manager.

"So when I feel I want to say something, I feel like I didn't get listened to previously. I've had to be smart about it - I'd say it needed to be one way, and other people wouldn't listen. So I'd have to go to the manager and say 'this is the situation, can you back me up' and they would say 'yes I will Tracey', so then I'd go back and tell them and everyone listens.

"I'm not someone where that would phase me. If I don't think something is right, I will keep going until I get a yes. I'm quite known for that, I'm not someone that will just take it if I don't think it's right. Over time, people know that and they do listen now and life changes.

"A lot more women are working in football. I have some great women who work in football and after the boardroom incident, various women were messaging me and that meant the world to me. At times, you feel like 'what support have I got?' To know that you've got all these women who have got your back that work in football, it was mind-blowing to me.

"I don't see a difference between working in football and working anywhere else. You shouldn't be any different. I don't treat the players any different than I treat any other member of staff, everybody is the same. Working in football should be the same as any other environment.

"You need to be resilient as well because I have met women who have felt like they were undermined or spoken to differently because they were a woman. Me personally, I won't have it.

"You should be able to work where you want to work and your sex should not define whether you get the role. We've got to have an open mind and women can work wherever they want to work. It shouldn't deter them and if you want to do it, you can do it.

"There are a lot of steps that are being made already, like Women in Football. They're fantastic, I've been on one of their courses. I've also done an International Women's Day call with a supporters group on Facebook, which was great because I met so many women on there. We ended up going to the pub another time together.

"I wasn't bought up with football, but if I had gone to a game on my own, I would feel quite intimidated. It's nice if you've got other women that would like to go. We've done various networking groups too.

"Times have changed and men have to know that there is a change now. We have as much right to work in a football club as anybody else."

It is her passion for the club, drive for what is right and representation of women in football that has seen Leaburn cement herself as a role model and the beating heart of Charlton Athletic.

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