How Michelle Agyemang and Chloe Kelly have exposed the big lie at the heart of football

Independent

6 days ago

At its best, sport delivers drama like nothing else. Unexpected twists, reversals of fortune, the upending of expectation: all of the playwright's principal weapons are on display on the cricket pitch, the rugby field or the athletics track. But the Lionesses seem to have embraced the dramatic with a gusto that few have matched before. Nothing comes easy for these English footballers. Everything is left to the last minute. For them, the straightforward is always to be spurned.
And how we have embraced their approach. Eight million of us tuned in to ITV to watch them play Italy in the Euros semi-final last week.
By the end, as Chloe Kelly once again delivered the coup de grace as she had three years ago when they won the tournament on home soil, the pundit Ian Wright was by no means alone in his vigorous celebratory cavort around the ITV studio: all eight million of us were leaping from our sofas as one, united in delighted relief. We all went doolally.
But until that moment of nationwide release, how they toyed with our nerves, ratcheting up the tension at every turn.
Up against a brave, resilient but far less talented Italian team, England's women first fell behind, then waited until the last possible moment to equalise through the substitute Michelle Agyemang, who had only been on the pitch for seven minutes.
Even Kelly's winner was not exactly uncomplicated: having seen her penalty brilliantly saved by the Italy goalkeeper, she was obliged to snaffle the rebound. Her celebration, miming that we should all just calm down, there was no need to panic, she was in control, was a lovely summation of the Lionesses' way: they get there in the end.
It is almost as if Serena Wiegman and her team need to embrace jeopardy before they can express themselves. For so much of this Euros tournament, they have been off kilter, playing well below their potential. They are the holders, after all. In the quarter-final against Sweden, like Italy, another side with little of England's resources and financial backing, they had to turn things around after an abject start. Again, they needed Kelly and Agyemang to deliver a late rescue act from the bench.
Even their one convincing win against Holland earlier in the tournament was the product of necessity: having lost their first group game to France, they had to win in order to avoid the ignominy of being the first holders ever to be ejected from the competition before the knockout rounds.
Like their male counterparts in last summer's Euros, they may have stuttered and staggered along the way, drawing vituperative criticism for their tactics and the manager's selections, but they have made it to the final.
As they have done so, they have once again refuted many of the wearisome, misogynistic prejudices that have for so long stalked women's sport in this country. And still do in Italy, where news of their women's defeat in the semi-final is down at the bottom of the front page of La Gazzetta dello Sport 's website, well below updates on the Italian Fantasy Football League. Sure, they may not be as quick or strong as the blokes, but that comparison is a pointless irrelevance when the drama they embrace is as intense as this.
Like every drama, this one is all the more compelling because of the characters involved. Take 19-year-old churchgoer Agyemang, who has only ever played four times for her club Arsenal, yet across just 103 minutes on the pitch for her country has now scored three times. That is the kind of record that makes Erling Haaland look goal-shy.
Then there's Lucy Bronze, the titan of a defender who defied age and injury to smash home the decisive penalty in the shootout against Sweden. Or Hannah Hampton, the smiling goalkeeper who proved with her magnificent save in extra time against Italy that she deserves to have usurped her predecessor, the stalwart Mary Earps.
Maybe, after seeing her in action last night, Nike might feel it worth their while to market a Hampton replica shirt in the way they initially refused to do with Earps's piece of kit. The demand will, without question, be there. Every little girl watching her throw herself into action will want to pull on a Hampton jersey. And many a little boy too.
And pay is still much lower than men's. While the Football Association agreed a record bonus package with England's Lionesses worth up to £1.7m if they retain their European Championship title this summer, Gareth Southgate's squad would have shared a bonus pot of about £9.6m had they won the European Championship final against Spain last summer.
In total, England's women receive roughly one-fifth to one-tenth of what the men earn – largely due to smaller prize pots, less commercial revenue, and historical underinvestment – lest we forget, women's football was banned in England from 1921 to 1971 on FA pitches.
But while this historical legacy has stunted institutional backing and funding, with rising fan support, this is changing. Because the Lionesses have become part of the national story. They may be paid less, but we are all invested, we are all committed, and we are all behind them. What they have proven is that, against apparent assumption, the English are quite good at things. Though for the collective nerve, it might be as well that in the final, they could simply score early and cut out all the concern.
Just do it the easy way. With these women, however, you suspect that won't happen. These are, after all, queens of drama and in their play against Spain expect nothing less.