Watch out Mary Earps! Emma Hayes is right - Chelsea goalkeeper Hannah Hampton has all the attributes to become the 'best in the world' and claim Lionesses' No.1 jersey

Hampton's family relocated to Villareal in eastern Spain when she was five. This is where she honed her passion for football, with the 23-year-old opening up on this part of her life during an interview posted on Chelsea's website last year.

"In Spain, it was quite normal for boys and girls to play football on the playground," she said. "The school that I went to was the main one in Villarreal so all the men’s players sent their kids there. They would come and pick their kids up at the end of the day and one of the players saw me. They said I should trial for the club, and so I went to trial and that was it."

Her family returned to England at 11, but Hampton's footballing enthusiasm persisted. However, ending up in goal was far from a foregone conclusion.

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"I was right-wing, striker and number 10! Anywhere that involved running because I loved it," she recalled in the same interview. "My first game in goal came aged 12, but I went in goal properly at 14. When I was at Stoke, the goalkeeper got injured so I volunteered to go in goal. The one game I played, an England scout came, so I got scouted for England.

"A week later, I was outfield and they scouted me outfield so I had to pick! I went to my first England camp when I was 12, playing in goal for a bit and then outfield for a bit. At my club, I would play outfield and for England I’d play in goal. When I was 14, I went full goalkeeper."

This is not the only interesting aspect of Hampton's early development either. Remarkably, she was diagnosed with a strabismus, an eye condition that affects depth perception as a child. Despite undergoing several operations to correct the issue, the ailment left her with limited depth perception.

"Yeah, I can't judge any distances," she told Sky Sports in 2021. "I don't get how I'm a goalkeeper, I don't understand! Everyone's been asking me that! I don't get how it works, but you can tell because I try and pour a glass of water and I will miss the glass completely, unless I'm holding the glass myself. I have done it around the training ground a few times and a few of the girls have just laughed at me."

This issue did not prevent Hampton from cementing her status as one of the WSL's most-promising goalkeepers when she was afforded first-team opportunities at Birmingham City. Her chance came following the departure of Ann-Katrin Berger to Chelsea in January 2019, with Hampton scarcely relinquishing the gloves in the years that followed.

She was kept busy, too. The Blues' WSL fortunes declined sharply following scything budget cuts, with Ellen White, Aoife Mannion and Hayley Ladd all departing in summer 2019. Amid this chaos, Hampton's prodigious reputation endured and Aston Villa snapped her up following Birmingham's second successive 11th-placed finish at the end of the 2020-21 season.

Her first campaign at Villa saw her come on leaps and bounds, with only Brighton's Megan Walsh and West Ham's Mackenzie Arnold making more saves in the WSL that campaign. Her form also led to her being rewarded with a maiden, senior England cap at the 2022 Arnold Clark Cup.

"I don’t think I took a smile off my face from the minute I got told until now really, and I don’t think it will be coming off my face for a long time," Hampton reflected after reaching that major milestone.

Heading into last season, it felt like the only way was up for Hampton and Villa. The club had turned heads with a highly impressive transfer window, bringing in the likes of Rachel Daly, Kenza Dali and Kirstie Hanson, while the goalkeeper was riding high as part of England's Euro 2022-winning squad.

Things started extremely promisingly too, with the free-scoring Daly firing the Villans up the table. Hampton, however, was conspicuously absent from the starting line-up after keeping a clean sheet in her side's 2-0 victory over Leicester in September.

Eventually, Villa boss Carla Ward provided an update following a defeat to Chelsea in October where Hampton was excluded from the squad entirely. "Hannah was available. Something happened yesterday and we decided it was in the best interests of the team and the squad for her to stay at home, so I did exactly that," she said.

Oddly, though, Hampton was spotted in the stands at Kingsmeadow cheering on her team-mates. Things were further complicated when she was omitted from the England squad for games against Japan and Norway in early November, having previously missed out on the September squad too.

A report from the Guardianclaimed that Hampton's absence was due to "attitude" problems", with it unlikely that she would ever feature for the Lionesses again under Sarina Wiegman.

But the Dutchwoman soon poured cold water on these claims, saying: "The door is always open. When players perform and perform consistently for their club, then they have a chance." She added that the "keeper [had been] excluded for the same reason she was in September, and the personal things that she had to work on in September are still the same now."

Soon after, Hampton took to social media to reveal that she had been struggling with an ongoing medical issue, posting a picture from her hospital bed with the caption: "Can't wait to be back!"

And if there was any truth to the murmurings about her difficult behaviour, all parties moved on from the situation quickly. In December, Hampton regained her place in the Villa line-up, and even made it into England's 2023 Women's World Cup squad.

And in March last year, Ward suggested her No.1 was a woman transformed. "I'm delighted. Since the turn of the year, she's put a lot of things in place personally which have helped her, and I think she's developed no end in these past few months," she beamed.

"Her performances, I've said it the last couple of weeks...there's not a better in-form keeper in the Women's Super League right now. That's a fact. She's absolutely flying, playing some of the best football of her career, so long may that continue."

Unfortunately for Ward and Villa, summer 2023 would mark the end of them benefitting from Hampton's considerable talent. Despite attracting interest from several European clubs, she would eventually opt for a move to Chelsea on a free transfer.

It felt like a surprising switch at the time. The chance to work with Hayes and her trailblazing coaching team, as well as the guarantee of major silverware, were obvious appeals, but Chelsea already looked extremely well-stocked in the goalkeeping department.

Zecira Musovic and Berger had split time between the sticks fairly evenly over the previous few seasons, and Chelsea then further bloated their pool of stoppers by bringing in Belgium No.1 Nicky Evrard in September.

As expected, Hampton found first-team minutes very hard to come by during the first few months of career in west London, with Musovic and Berger - before her injury struggles - proving impossible to displace in the side. Her chance finally arrived in December, though, as Hampton started in Chelsea's comfortable 3-0 victory over Bristol City.

Though Hampton was no doubt relieved to finally get a taste of first-team action, her appearance against the struggling Robins did not seem to alter the fact that she was still behind Musovic in the goalkeeping pecking order.

However, since the turn of the year, something seems to have convinced Hayes to make her the Blues' No.1. Hampton started Chelsea's first WSL clash of 2024, a 3-1 victory over Manchester United, and impressed. She played out from the back with more assurance than Musovic seems capable of, and also made a couple of really good saves, most notably tipping Geyse's rasping drive around the post with the score at 2-0.

From that moment, Hampton has started over Musovic in every game that has mattered for Chelsea, growing in confidence with each passing week.

Indeed, the Blues simply would not be in the Conti Cup final without her efforts against Manchester City, with Hayes reflecting after that semi-final: "It was absolutely superb from Hannah from start to finish. It brings confidence to the back-line. Her ability to play out from the back plus making saves like she did, she is growing in a Chelsea shirt, and her alongside Sjoeke Nusken were players of the match for us."

That match-winning display against City was typical of the performances Hampton has showcased since earning her spot in the first team. No WSL goalkeeper, not even the exciting Khiara Keating, can boast a higher save percentage than Hampton this season (84.2%), while the Blues stopper is also conceding at measly rate of just 0.43 goals per 90 minutes.

This is not the only metric she's bossing either. Hampton is also the WSL goalkeeper with the highest percentage of cross claims this season (14.3%), while only one shot-stopper (Tottenham's Rebecca Spencer) has a better long-pass completion rate.

It's very difficult to see Musovic - or even Berger, who recently suffered a concussion-related setback on her road to full fitness - scrambling above her in the rotation at this point. Hayes is certainly enjoying her work recently, saying after Friday's win: "I really love my time with Hannah and I said to her yesterday, ‘I really wish we had longer’. I really enjoy her company, her journey and her backstory.

"She’s someone who we talked about: ‘why Chelsea for you?’ She could have had the pick of many clubs, but she trusted me in the vision I had for her. I remember watching her play one day when she was at Birmingham. I remember saying to Stuart [Searle], 'I love this girl, she is going to be a top, top goalkeeper'."

Whether Hayes' Chelsea successor will be as equally enthused by Hampton's ability remains to be seen. However, if the goalkeeper can keep putting in performances like this, she may warrant serious consideration for England's No.1 jersey too.

Wiegman has evidently been keeping a close eye on Hampton's displays this season, opting to hand her a start over Keating when Mary Earps was rested for a 7-2 victory over Austria last month.

"This is an opportunity to show herself. She has done well at Chelsea. We know Mary is our No.1 goalkeeper but we need to have an option when something is happening with Mary, [to know] Hannah is ready to go. I think she can show that tonight," the Lionesses coach explained before the game.

Despite conceding twice, Hampton largely fared well on what was just the third cap of her career, and she will be motivated to keep piling the pressure on Earps moving forward.

That she is even in the international conversation at all is startling, considering the position she found herself in last season, and is testament to her resilience and relentless attitude - two traits Hayes' Chelsea have in spades.

And with those question marks behind her, what's to stop Hampton fulfilling her potential by becoming the Lionesses' perfect modern goalkeeper when Earps' powers begin to wane?