#Beautiful lioness series

Lucy Bronzeīronze spent part of her childhood growing up on remote, windswept Holy Island - or Lindisfarne - off the north Northumberland coast. Thanks to an amalgam of her incredible determination and ophthalmic skill she has confounded the doubters and, courtesy of a fiendishly complex, contact lens prescription is as clear sighted as any Lioness. During her time with Stoke she was diagnosed with Strabismus, an eye condition which effects depth perception and was told she would never play football at the highest level. Hampton remains fluent in Spanish and French and makes frequent visits to her former country but, after returning to England reinvented herself as a goalkeeper in Stoke’s academy. At five her teacher parents emigrated from Warwickshire to Spain where she was swiftly scouted by the Villarreal academy - as a striker. Hampton was born with a squint and was so severely cross eyed that, by the age of three, she had undergone three operations at Birmingham children’s hospital where she is now an ambassador. Peaky Blinders and Friends rank as her favourite television viewing. Despite her academic leanings and dedication to training, team-mates know to be wary of Earps’s penchant for innovative practical jokes. She learnt German during the 2018-19 season she spent with Wolfsburg and says the experience of living abroad “taught me to be myself, I learnt to disagree and say no”. Mary EarpsĪ graduate in Information Management and Business Studies from Loughborough University, currently competing with Ellie Roebuck to be England’s no1, the Nottingham born Earps spent part of lockdown taking a refresher course in entrepreneurship and reading books on international economics.

A very decent outfield player, Roebuck impresses with ball at her feet and has benefited from training alongside the City men’s goalkeeper Ederson, at the club’s Etihad Campus.

“I’m obsessed with Zara, but who isn’t?” says Roebuck, who is striving to regain her position as England’s first choice goalkeeper after missing the first half of this/last season with a calf injury. A dedicated Sheffield United fan, she relaxes by walking her dog and maintaining a reputation for wearing the most cutting edge High Street fashion available.

#Beautiful lioness series

Roebuck’s schooldays in Sheffield were enriched when her parents began fostering a series of children she delighted in introducing to the art of goalkeeping and says “opened my eyes to less privileged lives”. This lowdown on the England squad is written by the Guardian’s Louise Taylor. As part of the Guardian’s Women’s Euro 2022 Expert’s Network, a collaboration between media outlets from 16 countries, AS is offering in-depth profiles of the players in all 16 squads at the tournament, which runs from 6 to 31 July.