They forced the nation to sit up and take notice of women’s football as they smashed their way to today’s Euros final – but England’s Lionesses say that is all down to their unbreakable bonds.
The immense team spirit that took them all the way to Wembley is built on friendships that go all the way back to their childhoods.
And their revolution in female football is inspired by attentive mentoring from older players.
The stars of the game have opened up about how they’ve inspired each other as they bid to become the first England team to win a major trophy in 56 years.
As children, defenders Lucy Bronze and Demi Stokes used to travel to games with Lucy Staniforth and Jordan Nobbs – two midfield aces who just missed out on being picked for the squad this time.
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The two Lucys grew up together in the tiny Northumberland village of Anick. They went to the same primary school and ended up as neighbours.
Lucy Staniforth, 29, who also plays for Manchester United, recalled: “There was a girl there with a short bob and red hair and I was looking at her like, ‘Who the hell is that?’ It was only Lucy!
“We joined the school on the same day and then, lo and behold, we moved house and our new home actually backed on to Lucy’s garden.
“It’s such a strange circumstance. She basically had no choice but to be my friend. I was just a little weirdo looking for someone to cling on to.
“It is so bizarre how two of us were living in such a small town with just one man and his dog.”
The young pals played against Jordan and Demi, who were already playing for England’s youth team.
Lucy said: “We thought, ‘OMG! They must be mint!’ We were so in awe of both of them.
“Then we all ended up playing for Sunderland and were just a bunch of weirdos, so became really good friends. We used to give Demi lifts to training a lot because we thought that was our way in and would make us even cooler.
“We were like, ‘Please like us, please like us. We’ve got Demi in the car!’”
The bonds between them are so strong that Lucy wants Demi, Jordan and the other Lucy to be bridesmaids at her upcoming wedding to girlfriend Laura – but they might not be able to attend.
When she was a guest on Coffee Club – the BBC podcast of England ace Jill Scott – Lucy revealed: “I am getting married in December. But just the other day I found out there was a Champions League game on the day of my wedding.
“I was trying to be super-positive about it, but three of my bridesmaids could be playing in one of those games.”
Midfielder Jill, 35, and England’s top scorer Ellen White, 33, have been a huge inspiration to younger players, including skipper Leah Williamson, 25, midfielder Keira Walsh, 25 and forward Ella Toone, 22.
Ella first met Jill when she was 11 years old – and says she was still starstruck when she joined the senior national team in 2020.
Jill said: “It’s crazy to think Ella might be going around now and the next Ella Toone might be asking for her photo.
“When I was coming through, we only had male players to look up to.”
Jill even had to wear men’s kit when she started out in the game because none had been made for the women. She said: “I remember playing for Sunderland. There was this old physio guy called Jockey Scott and all his kit had the initials ‘JS’.
“I was buzzing because I could get my initials. But this kit was so worn away.
“It’s completely different now. The younger players probably get sick of hearing, ‘Well, back in my day…’
“On a serious note, it’s brilliant. That’s what we always strived for – making it better for the next generation.”
Ellen reckons her age combined with Jill’s and defender Steph Houghton, 34, should qualify them for royal attention.
“We’re over 100 now!” she said. “We’re going to ask if we can get a letter from the Queen saying congratulations for our combined age. I’ve had some players say, ‘Do you know you’re old enough to be my mum?’”
Jill said: “I do have those moments of, ‘God, I am nearly 40 and all I have done is kick a ball around. Your whole life’s just been kicking a ball around.’”
But concentrating on the beautiful game is what pulls the team together.
Ella said: “You can’t switch off. But it’s always good to go away with the girls and learn from their experience.”
Captain Carol blazed trail
The first woman to captain the Lionesses in a European final says women can “absolutely inspire the men’s game” - and has even encouraged her grandsons to go pro.
Carol Thomas, 67, was the second-ever captain of England Women and the first to win 50 caps, leading her side into the 1984 Women’s Euros final.
Her incredible career has now inspired her grandsons William, 12, and Freddy, who boast about their grandma at football practice and have been trying to get tickets to join her at Wembley tonight.
“Women can absolutely inspire the men’s game,” Carol, who lives in Hull, East Yorks, told the Sunday Mirror.
“My grandsons play in their local clubs and absolutely love it.
“It’s incredible to see young lads being as enthusiastic about the women’s game as the men’s game.
“When I go to watch them play on a Sunday morning, all their teammates come up and ask me questions about my career and the game and things like that.
“They say: ‘That’s my Grandma! She was a footballer!’”
Carol - who led a walk from the site of the first Euro game in Crewe to Old Trafford with UEFA Women’s Euro 2022 sponsor LinkedIn earlier this month - says playing a sold-out Wembley like today’s Lionesses would be beyond her “wildest dreams”, as she faced obstacles at every turn.
She said: “It was of course a great honour to get selected for England and we all had full-time jobs in those days, so we went to work from nine to five and then did all that extra training, which was also quite expensive. But to be quite honest, I just wanted to play football.
“It was difficult when I started to realise the obstacles though - you just wanted to play on the pitches and you’d get derogatory comments from the men on the sides, asking us to take off and swap our shirts and silly things like that. But we would just ignore them. We were there just to play football.”
Despite juggling her full-time office job and intensive training, defender Carol became a skipper of the national side in the first edition of the European tournament and remains one of only four people to have captained England to a major tournament final, along with Bobby Moore, Harry Kane and her successor Faye White.
She added: “Me and the women of that original squad feel incredibly proud of the Lionesses and we recognise that what we did was a little stepping stone to their success - if we had not made the sacrifices that we made back then, who knows where women’s football would be now?”
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Follow Carol on LinkedIn and join the conversation #FollowInHerFootsteps.
