Lionesses star Chloe Kelly said she got “the best yellow card” of her life for a wild goal celebration at Wembley, when she ripped off her top to reveal her sports bra and ran down the hallowed turf.
England’s super-sub returned home on Monday night to a hero’s welcome in Hanwell a day after scoring the winning goal in the team’s Euro 2022 victory over Germany in extra-time.
Relatives and neighbours kissed and hugged Miss Kelly, 24, who locals said has given girls “the ability to dream”.
She told Good Morning Britain on Tuesday: “I think that moment everything is a blur, you celebrate for what the moment is, not ‘Am I allowed to take my shirt off’.
“As you know, I’m taking my shirt off. I’m going crazy because men footballers have been doing exactly the same, so as a woman why can’t we? You’re an England fan in that moment.”
Despite being penalised for it by the referee, Miss Kelly added: “The best yellow card I’ve ever received.”
The Manchester city winger earned England their first major international trophy since 1966.
Proud parents Jane and Noel Kelly greeted her at their house on the Windmill Park estate, close to “the cage” a gravel pitch where she first kicked a ball alongside five older brothers.
Miss Kelly said of her receiving bruised and scabbed knees playing with them: “Yeah, I knew if I would go home and cry then I’d never be allowed back. The boys they were all older boys. I think if I didn’t have that, I wouldn’t be here today, so I’m very grateful for the people where I live for being out in the cages and just enjoying football for what it is.”
She added about Daniel, now 34, and Jack, 33, plus triplets Jamie, Martin and Ryan, 30: “They never made it easy for me. That’s what got me where I am today. If they would have made it easy, maybe I would have thought that’s the way it’s always going to be.”
Ealing’s deputy council leader Deirdre Costigan on Monday went back to the now famous rusting metal football pens.
She offered Miss Kelly the prestigious freedom of the borough in recognition of her outstanding contribution to women’s football and for putting Hanwell on the map.
Mrs Costigan told the Standard: “Chloe’s certainly a little diamond. That cage in Hanwell is now in the history books. The whole borough was cheering her on, even if some of us were hiding behind the couch.
“We are massively proud of Chloe. It’s amazing for her, the family and for the whole local area. Young girls are going to be inspired by what she has done.”
Mrs Costigan is calling for sports facilities in the borough to be boosted so “the Chloe Kellys living in Hanwell now, kicking balls around” go on to greatness.
Miss Kelly’s mother Jane, 55, who stayed at home to care for her seven children while her husband Noel, 58, worked as a machinery engineer, said her daughter was football-mad from an early age.
She added: “When she used to go to the shops, she’d be doing kick-ups.
“I would say, ‘Leave that ball at home’ and she would say ‘no, no, no’. Every time we went out, everywhere we went, she had a ball.
“She was tough as old boots and just bounced off of everybody.
“Growing up here, everyone used to go out playing. Getting hit by the big boys with the ball, she used to get up and get up and that’s made her such a tough footballer.
“She used to come home with cuts on her legs from bouncing off the cage floor but she’d still go back the next day.”
As a child, Miss Kelly would often hop on the No92 bus from her home as a child and travel to Wembley Stadium on FA Cup final day just to buy a matchday programme.
She started her career at Queens Park Rangers, before moving to Arsenal.
Miss Kelly, who signed a two-year deal with Manchester City, lives with her boyfriend of three years, Scott, 31, a greenkeeper at a golf club and their cockapoo Otis.
Julie Curley, her former PE teacher, spoke of the jaw-dropping moment she first saw her play football.
Mrs Curley, who taught Miss Kelly at Elthorne Park High School, said: “I remember her first day at Elthorne and seeing this young blonde girl in the playground doing keepy-ups.
“I thought ‘My goodness that young person has got skills’.
“Her talent was clear from the outset, she was a phenomenal athlete.”
