‘I had to be a rebel to play football’: England’s Leah Williamson on sexism, self-doubt and winning the Euros
When Leah Williamson was seven, her father told her he didn’t want to hear any excuses. If she really wanted to become a professional footballer, and was prepared to put the effort in, there was no reason why she shouldn’t succeed. Today, Williamson is one of the best-paid women in the game and captain of an England team that hasn’t lost for 29 matches, including the final of last year’s Euros.
What makes her father’s words remarkable is that, at the time, there was no professional women’s league in England. Even more remarkably, when she was a toddler her parents feared that she might never walk properly. Williamson was born with inward-pointing toes. “If they couldn’t have fixed it, it would have created problems when I started to grow. I would have had to wears braces on my legs,” she says.
Doctors suggested to her parents that horse riding or gymnastics could help straighten her feet. So, at the age of two, Williamson started gymnastics, which she did four times a week for seven years. This proved the catalyst for her love of football. If they finished early on a Friday, her gymnastics coach would get a football out and the kids would have a kickabout. Before long, Williamson was thinking more about whether she would focus on football or gymnastics than whether her pigeon toes would leave her disabled. At nine, she joined Arsenal’s youth programme. Sixteen years on, she wants to make sure that this generation of aspiring Leah Williamsons are given the same kind of opportunities her family gave her.
When we talk for the first time, she tells me it’s six months to the day since England won the Euros. “It still gives me goosebumps,” Williamson says. No wonder. For many of us, it wasn’t just the greatest sporting moment of 2022, it was the greatest moment full stop. England won their first football trophy in 56 years and football finally did come home. “The trophy feels like our baby,” she says. “Apart from my brother, I’ve never held anything so precious in my life.” As I’m about to discover, family is everything to Williamson.
It wasn’t simply winning the Euros that was special, it was the way they did it. England were exhilarating to watch, scoring a number of wonder goals on the way to victory – from Alessia Russo’s audacious backheel against Sweden to Georgia Stanway’s bullet against Spain in the quarter-final and Ella Toone’s sublime chip in the final. There was so much brio and freedom in the way they played. Best of all was the joy they took in their success. Think of the ecstatic Chloe Kelly twirling her top, or the entire squad conga-ing into manager Sarina Wiegman’s press conference with a raucous rendition of Three Lions. Unforgettable.
You made us so happy, I say. “I hope so. If you weren’t happy with that, there’s not much else I can do.” Well, there is the World Cup, which starts in July. “Let’s not get
