Hannah Hampton: from England Exile to Euro 2025 Breakout Star after emerging from the shadow of Mary Earps | Football news

In March 2021, Hannah Hampton sat down on the field of Birmingham City, unable to retain tears after missing the selection of the GB team for the Olympic Games this summer.

Hampton received the news of an hour before 4-0 hammering by Everton and had a hard time at 90 minutes while the 20-year-old woman who had used to overeat for her age was brought back to earth with a blow.

These tears were back just over four years later in Basel Sunday evening when the pure joy of the historic triumph of England Euro 2025 was no camera. Following six exhausting performances, not always pleasant but flawless.

The extent of the 24 -year -old personal growth since this miserable night in the West Midlands will take some time to sink.

Hampton, of course, played every minute from the Lionesses to Switzerland this summer, saving two penalties in the victory in the quarter-final on Sweden before doing the same thing against Spain and winning the playful trophies of the match in both.

Michelle Agyemang won the best young player in the tournament, but Hampton became the Breakout star in England, the last triumph against the adversity which rallied her by more than one title.

The ocular condition that affects the perception of Hampton’s depth and threatened his hopes for football from a young age was well covered. But the self-inflicted exile of England and the club service after the last euros was rightly forgotten through its actions since.

In October 2022, she was abandoned for seven consecutive games by her villa then Club Aston and left England team on attitude problems. She had only two international ceilings at the time, but it was reported that she could never add a third under Sarina Wiegman. Things were bitten enough for there to be suggestions that she could completely move away from the game.

Quick advance around this summer, and Wiegman was ready to see Mary Earps withdrawing international football rather than guaranteeing her n ° 1 jersey ahead of Hampton, which had just lifted consecutive WSL titles with Chelsea but had not yet played a tournament game for her country.

“You cannot let all the media be examined,” said Hampton in building euros. “I think if you do this, it just adds fuel to fire and I was not ready to accept it.”

The teammates are now queuing to praise the goalkeeper who prevented more than XG than one of his 18 competitors between the sticks in Switzerland.

“She had a big tournament,” said Captain Leah Williamson Sky Sports In the wake of Sunday’s victory. The retreat of the shocks of Earps rocked England as much for its cultural meaning as its international experience, and shone firmly Hampton in a way that even these negative titles had not done.

It was a moment of the watershed that could do it or break it. She entered the final as the only goalkeeper capped from England, with the additional pressure to be a guaranteed starter, but at least spared the noise of continuous speculation on his rivalry with staff.

And everything that was before losing her grandfather two days before the start of the tournament, which she only revealed after her heroic this weekend.

Halfway through her beginnings in a tournament, she had already chosen the ball of her own net twice. But she, a bit like England as a whole, should not be intimidated.

We thought that Hampton had been preferred to the earps because of its quality on the ball. A shot drilled in Alessia Russo for the opening of England during the 4-0 battery in the Netherlands in the next England match, and labeled like the tournament pass By my colleague Laura Hunter, launched their trip to Basel.

Along the way, she created four chances for her teammates, double that of any other goalkeeper. It was an integral part of the new direct approach of Wiegman, completing 15 assists in the last third – the best of its rivals could manage was five.

But it would not be fair for her to remember only her creation of games. Not even for ending victory in the quarter -final on Sweden, brandishing a fabric in the nose to stem a war injury, a 21st century version on Terry Butcher bandage.

In the most lonely position of football, Hampton has shown maturity and calm and a level of coherence which was far from guaranteed given the spotlight on it. She can play for the most successful club in England, but as the Earps have shown since 2022, the discomfort around the lionesses is a different ball game.

Agyemang’s heroism against Italy made the headlines but would not have made any difference if Hampton had not prevented what seemed a certain goal of Emma Severini a few minutes earlier.

Remember, she has always only made 22 appearances for lionesses. At just 13 years old when the Wiegman team was appointed in June. And had to follow the most renowned goalkeeper in the history of women’s football.

His state of childhood eyes was intended for raft as a professional adhesive, not to mention a world -class goalkeeper. His previous offenses may have threatened his club and his international career, but ended up transforming it into a better player and a better person, in the words of his colleagues.

In a team that has resilient its slogan, Hampton’s claim is as strong as that of anyone.

“She had to intensify and I think she was incredible. It is a bit like a fairy tale,” was the evaluation of Wiegman. “Each player has his story and his has been incredible.”

In the football bookstore, the history of Hampton’s career is one of the summer well-being readings. But with his career in England always to his infancy and a third consecutive WSL title to win at the club level, the rest can be even better.