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ENGLAND won the hearts of the nation with their run to Euro 2022 glory this summer as they beat Germany 2-1 in Sunday’s final at Wembley.
Beth Mead won the Golden Boot, Chloe Kelly won the tournament – and super sub Alessia Russo won many plaudits.
But they were just some of the stars.
So how well do you know the 18 players who featured for the Lionesses this summer?
Mary Earps
Age: 29. Club: Manchester United. Caps: 24. Euro 2022 apps: 6
Earps played every minute of England’s campaign, only conceding two goals in the tournament.
A year ago she thought her international career was over – having not played for England in two years – and was on her way to John Lewis to buy curtain poles when she got an email telling her she was in Sarina Wiegman’s first squad in September. She is now the undisputed number one.
Earps and fellow Manchester United goalkeeper David de Gea message each other about clean sheets.
Lucy Bronze
Age: 30. Club: Barcelona. Caps: 96. Euro 2022 apps: 6
Bronze – who revealed this week she plays through knee pain – was the 2020 Best Fifa Women’s Player. She has been a key part of England’s triumph from right-back and scored in the semi-final win over Sweden.
“I’ve played full-back, but never, ever, ever to that level. She’s the best player in the world,” said her former England manager Phil Neville, who won 59 caps for the men’s team.
Despite all her accolades, Bronze remains modest and didn’t want to admit in a BBC podcast last year she was the best player in the world.
Alex Greenwood
Age: 28. Club: Man City. Caps: 66. Euro 2022 apps: 5
Defender Greenwood was perhaps the main casualty of Sarina Wiegman having a preferred starting XI, narrowly losing out to Rachel Daly for the opener and therefore every game, although she came on in most matches.
She has the rare distinction of having played for both Merseyside clubs and both Manchester sides.
Her old PE teacher Clare Murphy-Worrell said: “We’ve kept in touch with Alex and she’s come back to do presentations at school. When she comes, she lights up the hall. She’s so inspirational.”
Millie Bright
Age: 28. Club: Chelsea. Caps: 58. Euro 2022 apps: 6
A rock at the back, Bright – who has captained England in the past – made more clearances than anybody else at Euro 2022.
“Horses were my first love,” she said in 2019. “I used to work as a groom and fitness instructor. I miss the outside side of it with the horses, but I am so grateful that Chelsea came in for me as I would not be in the position I am in now.”
Bright suffered terribly from asthma and pneumonia as a child and was regularly rushed into hospital in the night by ambulance.
Leah Williamson
https://emp.bbc.com/emp/SMPj/2.45.0/iframe.html‘Sorry to the whole nation’ – Williamson apologises for keeping fans up
Age: 25. Club: Arsenal. Caps: 37. Euro 2022 apps: 6
Sometimes a midfielder, Williamson is England’s captain and a stylish ball-playing centre-back. She made more than 100 passes above the tally of anybody else in the tournament.
Williamson’s former PE teacher Jo Green said: “It is no surprise that she has gone on to achieve what she has so early in her career. Leah was always a very kind, thoughtful and hard-working person in everything she did.”
She is a rising star in the world of fashion too and this year ran her first fashion show for Gucci.
Jess Carter
Age: 24. Club: Chelsea. Caps: 11. Euro 2022 apps: 1
Carter only played once in the tournament as a second-half substitute in the win over Northern Ireland.
She is in a relationship with her Chelsea team-mate and Germany goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger – although neither played in the final at Wembley.
“The main thing is about equality. It starts from the bottom. Everybody’s got to have access to the same facilities and there’s got to be more football opportunities in all areas of the country,” Carter told BBC Sport this summer about diversity in women’s football.
Rachel Daly
Age: 30. Club: Houston Dash. Caps: 56. Euro 2022 apps: 6
Daly played every game for England at left-back, having edged Greenwood to the starting spot.
A “die-hard” Leeds United fan, she has a tattoo with lyrics from the club’s song Marching on Together.
The Harrogate-born player has been based in the United States for a decade, going to university in New York in 2012.
Keira Walsh
Age: 25. Club: Man City. Caps: 48. Euro 2022 apps: 6
Walsh was the metronome at the heart of England’s midfield and set up Ella Toone’s goal in the final with a lovely pass.
A Manchester City fan, she once named two of her goldfish after former strikers Shaun Goater and Nicolas Anelka.
Walsh made her 200th appearance for her childhood club earlier this year, but did not realise the fact before the game.
Georgia Stanway
Age: 23. Club: Bayern Munich. Caps: 39. Euro 2022 apps: 6
A classy midfielder, Stanway’s sensational quarter-final winner against Spain will live long in the memory.
A huge Alan Shearer fan, she says her most valuable possession is a Shearer Match Attax card her grandmother gave her shortly before dying.
Stanway left Manchester City in May for German side Bayern Munich and her boyfriend, Olly Ashall-Bott, plays for rugby league side Toulouse in France.
Fran Kirby
Age: 29. Club: Chelsea. Caps: 63. Euro 2022 apps: 6
Kirby maybe did not hit the same heights as some of her attacking colleagues this summer, but her chip against Sweden was beautiful.
She was called England’s “mini Messi” by her then-manager Mark Sampson at the 2015 World Cup.
Kirby almost quit football as a child after the death of her mother, who used to predict Fran would play for England.
Jill Scott
Age: 35. Club: Unattached. Caps: 161. Euro 2022 apps: 4
This is the highly-experienced Scott’s 10th major tournament with England, having started the Euro 2009 final defeat to Germany. She made four appearances in this campaign from the bench, including the final.
Scott owns a coffee shop in Manchester with her partner Shelly Unitt, whose sister Rachel was Scott’s former England team-mate.
The midfielder, a free agent after leaving Manchester City this summer, has a BBC podcast called Jill Scott’s Coffee Club.
Ella Toone
Age: 22. Club: Man Utd. Caps: 20. Euro 2022 apps: 6
One of England’s super subs, they would not have won the tournament without Toone. Her late equaliser against Spain kept them in it – and her chipped finish in the final will go down in folklore.
Toone says she cried in a Starbucks with her father for about an hour after being let go by Manchester City, but a few months later she joined childhood club Manchester United.
She says she tries to implement part of Bruno Fernandes’ game into her own.
Alessia Russo
Age: 23. Club: Man Utd. Caps: 12. Euro 2022 apps: 6
Russo was a revelation, coming off the bench in every game and scoring four goals. In fact, she has eight in 13 games for England, despite having only ever started two games.
Russo’s former PE teacher Luke Anderson said “when Alessia joined us in year seven she was so good that we played her in the boys’ team and the girls’ team”.
Her father Mario is Met Police FC’s all-time record goalscorer.
Beth Mead
Age: 27. Club: Arsenal. Caps: 44. Euro 2022 apps: 6
Mead won the award for the best player at Euro 2022 and also the Golden Boot, scoring six goals in as many games – edging Germany’s Alexandra Popp on the number of assists.
That came just a year after the Arsenal forward, who now has 28 goals for her country, failed to even make the Team GB Olympic squad for the Tokyo Games.
Mead has a sport development degree from Teesside University, having juggled a full-time course and playing for Sunderland at the start of her career.
Ellen White
Age: 33. Club: Man City. Caps: 113. Euro 2022 apps: 6
White is England’s all-time female top scorer with 52 goals. She worked tirelessly, exhausting defenders in games before the Lionesses brought on their subs.
White’s father Jon tried to bet on his daughter playing for England when she was only 10, although the bookmakers would not take the bet.
She is a West Ham and Cologne fan, having loved Hammers left-back Julian Dicks and copied the ‘goggles’ celebration of the German side’s forward Anthony Modeste.
Lauren Hemp
Age: 21. Club: Man City. Caps: 27. Euro 2022 apps: 6
Hemp has had fans on the edge of her seat with some of her wing play this summer and the Manchester City forward has won a remarkable four consecutive PFA young player of the season awards.
Lauren and her sister Amy used to compete in ‘The Hemp Olympics’ in their back garden.
“I remember we used to have a small garden and I’d launch this tennis ball at her. She would pluck it out the air as if it was an apple off a tree,” said her father Kevin.
Nikita Parris
Age: 28. Club: Arsenal. Caps: 67. Euro 2022 apps: 2
Parris came on in the final minute against Germany, taking her Euro 2022 campaign to a total of five minutes.
The Toxteth-born forward started her own football team at the age of 11 because she wanted a women’s team in the area. “I gathered all my friends and family and everyone I knew,” said Parris. “We won the league.”
She has a sport development degree from Liverpool John Moores University.
Chloe Kelly
Age: 24. Club: Man City. Caps: 15. Euro 2022 apps: 6
A national hero, Kelly’s winner in the final will see her remembered forever. Another of England’s regular forward substitutions, she only started three WSL games last season after 11 months out through injury.
Kelly says she could not watch last summer’s Olympics after the ACL injury cost her a place in the Team GB squad.
She used to play cage football with her five older brothers and their friends when she was a child.
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