The Guardian

‘PARENTS OF BOYS ON THE OPPOSING TEAMS SCREAMED: GET THE GIRL!’

An extract from You Have the Power

When I was six, I was desperate to play football, but it wasn’t easy for my parents to find a team for me to join. There were plenty of boys’ teams around, but not many of the coaches wanted a girl in their teams. Some would make up an excuse by saying that their teams were full and there was no space for me. While no one told me “no” to my face, it felt like I wasn’t entirely welcome.

Eventually, my mum reached out to a local coach, whom she had gone to school with. He coached a boys’ team called Bletchley Scot Youth, and he said I could join if I was good enough. He was very clear that he wasn’t going to take me just because I was a girl, and also that he wasn’t not going to take me just because I was a girl, either! His attitude was “as long as she’s good enough, she can play”.

The other kids at Scot Youth made me feel accepted straight away, but often when we played in matches, I was made to feel like I didn’t belong by the team we were playing. The parents of boys on the other teams would often scream things like: “Get the girl” or “Get her!”. I guess they just didn’t like that their son was being outplayed by a girl.

The boys from the other teams would sometimes tackle me more viciously than my teammates, I think because they were so panicked about losing to a girl. My parents made me wear a gumshield for the year I played in that boys’ team. As if I didn’t already stand out enough! But it was worth it, because it meant I got to play.

JUST UNDER TWO DECADES later, I was captaining England in the final of the Euros against Germany. I always said to myself during that tournament that I would embrace every emotion, good or bad. I wanted to feel every moment. I wanted to enjoy every high, and if that meant feeling the lows, too, then it was worth it. I didn’t want to switch off just to get through it.

If you watched the final, you will have seen me crying my eyes out at the end. I felt so relieved, but the emotions were so strong I felt like I was falling into little pieces.

The noise had been so loud around the final, but we managed to stay in a little bubble throughout the tournament. We tried to shut out the outside world. It’s impossible not to feel the expectation when you walk out in front of 87,192 fans. I soaked up all that atmosphere. I thought I was going to cry, but instead I smiled the whole way through the national anthem.

When Chloe Kelly scored the winner in extra time, I didn’t even see who it was, I just saw a foot stick out, the ball go in and then everyone went wild. At the final whistle, I was a wreck. I had been bombarded by emotion after emotion not just for the length of the game, but for the whole tournament. When you achieve something that you’ve worked so hard for, suddenly you realise all of the hard choices and decisions that you’ve made throughout your entire life feel justified.

One of the most powerful things that we can do as players is exist in the public eye – just seeing women performing at the top level can help others believe that they can get there, too.

This is an edited extract from You Have the Power: Find Your Strength and Believe You Can by Leah Williamson with Suzanne Wrack, published on 30 March by Pan Macmillan. To buy a copy for £9.29, go to guardianbookshop.com

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2023-03-25T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-03-25T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://guardian.pressreader.com/article/281758453533824

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