How Lionesses hero Hannah Hampton defied the odds to become a world-class goalkeeper

Hampton's promise as a footballer was evident from an early age. That was not necessarily as a goalkeeper, either. After moving to Spain as a five-year-old, the Birmingham native was scouted for Villarreal's academy and actually played as a striker, with her not changing positions until she was back in England a few years later and part of the Stoke City set-up.

That footballing education at a club like Villarreal, though, would help Hampton develop one of her key strengths as a modern-day goalkeeper, which comes in her technical ability and distribution. Combined with strong reflexes and good reading of the game, plus a move to a Birmingham side which had a coach - in current Manchester United boss Marc Skinner - who trusted and developed young talent, it led to Hampton being granted her senior debut at just 16 years old.

By the time she was 18, Hampton was Birmingham's first-choice goalkeeper; aged 19, she was part of the England senior squad for the first time, as a training player; a year later, after a move to an ambitious Aston Villa side, she earned her first full Lionesses call-up; and, aged 21, she made her senior international debut.

While her story might look rather straightforward in that sense, it has been anything but. That’s because Hampton was born with a serious eye condition that prompted doctors to tell her that she should not play football. She had three operations by the age of three to try and correct the misalignment caused by strabismus, but it was not a complete success. Then, aged 12, she was diagnosed with impaired depth perception. "I can't judge distances," she explained previously. "So being a goalkeeper doesn't really make a lot of sense!"

Opening up on the difficulties in an interview with the i, Hampton said: "At the beginning I didn’t know I had it and a lot of the time the ball would smack me in the face. I’ve had to adjust my set position to have my hands out to take the ball. Trying to catch a ball is quite hard! I’ve had many, many nosebleeds. A lot of broken fingers. I’d try and catch it and it’d hit the top. They’ve all broken over the years. And that’s when I started adjusting it because I was fed up."

It's remarkable that Hampton has overcome such challenges to not just be a goalkeeper but become a world-class goalkeeper, then. "I’ve probably gone against some of the odds," she conceded, humbly.

There would be more obstacles in her way, too, as she attempted to climb from being an established goalkeeper in the WSL to one of the very best in the sport, who now represents one of the biggest clubs in the world, in Chelsea, and starts for England, the back-to-back European champions.

One would come shortly after she was part of the Lionesses' squad which won the Euros in 2022. Hampton missed England's next two camps, with Wiegman telling reporters: "She has some personal issues that she has to solve so for her at this moment, it’s better for her to stay at her club." A few weeks later, the Guardian published a story in which it claimed sources had indicated that Hampton had been dropped 'because of her behaviour and attitude at the team’s camps'. This was contradicted by the player herself, who posted a photo a few days later from a hospital bed, saying she had “been suffering with a medical problem for a while” and needed “a small procedure” to address it.

Events at Aston Villa intensified the confusion. In the same period, then-head coach Carla Ward said Hampton was “available” to play a game against Chelsea, but was left out of the squad due to "something that happened" which prompted her to believe "it was in the best interests of the team and the squad for [Hampton] to stay at home". A few days later, Ward said Hampton had a "recurring muscle injury" that required a small medical procedure. It all put the young goalkeeper in the media spotlight for the first time, and not how she'd have liked.

"I don't think I'd really prepared for the negative side of the media," Hampton told ITV earlier this year. "I did want to quit football. I wanted to pack it in. I didn't like it. I didn't know who to turn to because I thought everyone was against me. For me to achieve what I want to achieve and all the goals I've set myself, you have to face the adversity. You've got to push yourself through not nice situations. I always want to prove people wrong. From the get-go, I've done that and this was just another hurdle for me."

Hampton showed her ability to bounce back with what followed. She returned in goal for Villa a few weeks later, was back in the England picture in April of the following year and then part of the Lionesses squad which reached the Women's World Cup final, earning a huge move to Chelsea that same summer. It was after that tournament, though, that her trajectory on the international scene started to really accelerate.

To that point, Earps was England's undisputed No.1. She performed exceptionally at the Euros and the World Cup to win back-to-back FIFA Best awards and a whole host of other accolades, with her ranking higher in the Ballon d'Or Feminin voting than any goalkeeper before or since.

But Hampton was impressing for all-conquering Chelsea and knocking on the door more and more when it came to challenging her international team-mate for the No.1 shirt. She played a competitive fixture over Earps in April 2024, something that hadn't happened since Ellie Roebuck did so 18 months earlier, and took full advantage of the opportunities that came her way after the England No.1 picked up an injury in the summer.

As the year neared its end, it was clear that Hampton was starting to emerge as the front-runner to be the Lionesses' first-choice goalkeeper for Euro 2025 and in the New Year, she was - in Wiegman's words - "a little bit ahead".

When Earps announced her shock retirement a week before the England squad was to be named for the tournament, it came to light that Wiegman had told her that Hampton was to be No.1 and that played a significant role in the surprising news. It was quite a turnaround for the 24-year-old, less than three years on from her international future being thrown into serious doubt in the media.

But even as Hampton proved herself time and time again as an incredible goalkeeper for England, even as she put n big performances camp after camp and even as she usurped one of the Lionesses' greatest ever shot-stoppers to take the No.1 shirt for herself, she faced another obstacle, as some fans of the team were unhappy that she was going to be in between the sticks this summer, rather than Earps.

"It's hard when you see English fans not want you in goal, not want you in the team," Hampton told ITV. "That's hard because it's not like I've done anything to make you guys hate me. Yes, your favourite player has retired, but that's not my decision. So when you see people go, 'We don't want her', it's hard. Then it just goes back to, 'Just prove them wrong'.

"You don't want people to put you down and you don't want people to knock that smile off your face - and believe me, I'm not going to let them - but it is hard when you see fans not want you in goal."

What Hampton did at Euro 2025 certainly proved people wrong. There was no more impressive goalkeeper in Switzerland last month than the 24-year-old, who took the challenge of her first major tournament as a starter in her stride. Whether it was her shot-stopping, her distribution or her ability to step up in the biggest moments, there was so much to be impressed by.

And she was under pressure for the whole tournament. Had Hampton delivered under-par displays, had she looked a little shaky in between the sticks, then Wiegman's decision to choose her over Earps would've been questioned extensively. It's not like she was following in the footsteps of any goalkeeper, after all; she was taking the reins from someone who had stood out as one of the best when it came to these big stages.

But Hampton made all of that seem like nothing, backing up a treble-winning campaign at Chelsea with an outstanding Euros to become a national hero and, against all the odds, cement her status as a world-class goalkeeper.