As England prepared to play Spain in the quarter-finals of the Euros, Sarina Wiegman gathered her team and asked them a question. “You’ve got 10 days to change your life,” she said. “Do you want it or not?” Five months later, as the year draws to a close, even Wiegman could not have foreseen the impact England’s victory has created, and not only for them. It was not just their own lives the Lionesses were changing.
This has been their year. At the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year awards on Wednesday night, the Lionesses completed a resounding hat-trick of the major prizes. Beth Mead, England’s player of the Euros and the winner of the Golden Boot, picked up the main award. Wiegman, who succeeded where previous England managers had failed since 1966, was coach of the year. When it came to team of the year, there could only be one winner. No other victory has been as historic or groundbreaking as what the Lionesses achieved at Wembley this summer.
