TRACEY Neville was an internationally successful sportswoman, yet she is best known for being the sister of Gary and Phil Neville. She talked to chief sports writer Luke Edwards about living in her siblings’ shadow.

TRACEY Neville is sitting in a café in the middle of Newcastle city centre, dressed in a tracksuit, playing with an expensive Blackberry phone. There is no attempt to keep a low profile because she knows she does not have to.

There are no whispers, no stares, no embarrassed looks and no pointing. There is no entourage, there is not even a press officer to keep an eye on her. There is no fancy car waiting outside to drive her home to a millionaire’s mansion.

With more than 70 caps for her country and more than a decade at the top of her game, a player widely recognised as among the best of her generation is merely another face in the crowd, sipping coffee from a cardboard cup surrounded by chattering students.

As the twin of Everton captain Phil Neville, and the younger sister of former England and Manchester United defender Gary, Tracey has every reason to be bitter, yet there is not even the faintest hint of it as she talks about her famous family and her netball career.

She was not paid £60,000 a week to play her sport, they do not sing songs about her in the pubs of Manchester, Liverpool and beyond, she has never been idolised and she has never been a celebrity, but Tracey has no regrets or complaints.

“It has been a completely different life to my brothers’,” said Team Northumbria Netball’s new head coach. “I’ve had to balance playing international sport with the need to earn a living.

“People always ask me about the comparisons, but really there isn’t one. I’m not going to lie, would I have loved to have played netball full-time, to go into training every day rather than worry about holding down a job? Of course I would.

“But the life experiences I’ve had, my education and my work – I’m not bitter about it.

“I always knew it would be different. I accepted it.

“I think it has made me a really good person in terms of attitude, how I conduct my life. I always wanted to play my sport, but it’s given me another avenue as well. I’ve had a good life because of netball.”

She continued: “My family and my name have always put me in the public eye. It was a lot of pressure when I first started out, but I think it was a good thing in terms of promoting the sport. It didn’t always feel like that. A lot of the media would only be attracted to me because of the name and your team-mates can see that negatively, especially when you’re not even starting and there are girls with 100 caps and nobody is interested in talking to them.

“Even now, it’s one of the things that attracts attention from the media. But I’ve also got 81 caps for England, a World Championship medal, a Commonwealth medal, I’ve justified myself as a player.

“But as a young kid coming through, trying to cement your place in the team, it was a lot to deal with. Thankfully my teammates were supportive and if my name can make netball bigger, then I’m fine with it. I’m very proud of my family. We’re very close and very cemented in our ideas and what we believe in. That’s the way I see it. It’s just like anyone speaking about their family. To even speak bitterly about it isn’t in me.”