My First Spurs Christmas - Ria Percival

Ria Percival, who joined Spurs Women over the summer from West Ham, is next up for ‘My First Spurs Christmas’ – our recurring feature where we catch up with some of this year’s new signings to find out about their plans for the festive period and how they’ve celebrated in the past...

Ria Percival

New Zealand’s most-capped international, joined us from West Ham in July, 2019

What will you do on Christmas Day?
“We’ve got time off for the Christmas break after our Reading game last week, so I’ll be spending the day with my family, opening presents and I’ll be making the traditional Christmas dinner.”

How does this differ from past Christmases for you?
“In the past I’ve spent Christmas with my parents and brother in New Zealand, but I now go to Switzerland as my partner is Swiss, so I spend Christmas with the family there.”

What is traditional at Christmas in New Zealand?
“We celebrate Christmas the same as we would in England, but we eat our Christmas dinner outside because it’s summer. A lot of people in New Zealand tend to have barbecues on Christmas Day.”

What is your favourite festive meal?
“You can’t go wrong with a traditional English Christmas dinner. I would honestly have it every day if I could!”

What do you wish for at Christmas?
“As I’m older, I don’t wish for anything but to enjoy the time with my family and friends as much as possible.”

What was your most memorable gift as a child?
“I remember when I was really young, I got a bike for Christmas. I just remember going outside with my brother and dad and riding around on it. I loved it!”

Tanguy Ndombele, Hannah Godfrey, Ryan Sessegnon and Siri Worm have been answering our festive questions over the last few days – the series concludes tomorrow as we speak to Argentine international Giovani Lo Celso.