Lauren Hemp hopes England’s success at Euro 2022 will spark significant growth in the sport and future players will have an easier path to professional play.
Hemp had to leave his hometown of Norwich aged just 16 in search of competitive football and got his reward six years later when he started every game as Sarina Wiegman’s side became the men’s first team or women of England since 1966 to win a major tournament.
The Football Association first introduced central contracts with a select group of players in 2009, but the Women’s Super League only became fully professional at the start of the 2018-19 season.
As one of the youngest players in the England squad, Hemp has played almost her entire career in the fully professional era, but admitted reaching the top was still difficult.
“Obviously women’s football hasn’t always been as big as it is and when a lot of experienced players were younger they couldn’t play with women’s teams,” Hemp told the agency. release PA.
“So it’s great to see now that women can play at such a young age and it’s great to show them that it’s possible.
“Even when I was younger, there weren’t so many TV shows everywhere, there weren’t so many places where I could go to see women perform.
“It was all so far away from me being in Norwich – you’re literally in the middle of nowhere – I couldn’t attend as many games as I would have liked so it was always difficult.
“Even at 16, I had to move. I moved to Bristol because there were simply not enough teams near me at the level I needed to play.
“So even for me I’m still young – I’m 22 – it was a struggle for me too so I can’t imagine what it must have been like for the much older players who struggled to find teams and I had to travel so far just to get to training.
Less than a week after lifting the Euros trophy, the players have written an open letter to Conservative Party leadership candidates Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss – signed by all 23 squad members – calling for every girl has the opportunity to play football at school. .
Reflecting on her decision to leave home, Hemp believes England’s triumph has changed the state of women’s football in the country and wants young people to believe anything is possible.
“It was tough, to be fair. Because when I was 13 or 14 – when I was playing for Norwich – we would go on little tours for a week and I would cry every day because I missed home.
“So for me, the idea of leaving home at 16 – if you had asked me a few years before, I would have been like, ‘Absolutely not, I couldn’t think of anything worse.
“So it was difficult for me at the start, I think my mum and dad had it harder than me at the end, but I think it’s also helped me grow as a person and has helped me so much. helped my independence.
“Obviously I’ve come a long way, I don’t cry every day anymore being away from home, but it’s fine now, I live with my best mate who also plays for City (Esme Morgan) so that it worked very well.
“We hope this is just the start and it’s not just, ‘We won it, that’s it now’. We want this to be the start of something. It’s important that we use it as a platform and prove to young girls and boys that it is possible.
“We make promises to ministers and write letters and things like that, which try to give girls the freedom to be able to play football in schools and have it as an option to do it if they want.
“It’s come so far and it’s fantastic to see and it’s just the start for us, and hopefully with the WSL more games will be sold out this season. So many tickets are selling out fast and a lot of that is due to the euros and everything that has changed for football in this country.
:: Lauren Hemp is an ambassador for UEFA Women’s Euro 2022 domestic sponsor Starling Bank, which will donate £28,000 to emerging female players and grassroots football clubs to help develop female talent.
