The Lioness set to face her girlfriend and her ex in the SAME GAME, the stars who set tongues wagging with a secret kiss and the couple who dominate TikTok: Meet the partners poised to do battle at the women's Euros

Daily Mail​

2 days ago

The 2025 women's European Championship gets underway in Thun's Stockholm Arena on Wednesday night as Iceland take on Finland.
With all due respect to the respective nations, it's a fairly tame opening to a tournament that is expected to continue to deliver the thrill and excitement of recent women's footballing competitions that has seen the popularity of the game skyrocket.
Copious amounts of time has gone into preparing the participants for an occasion that could define their careers. But with immense opportunity comes immense pressure and, fortunately for the vast majority of the players who will be taking the field over the next month, they will have an army of loyal cheerleaders among the crowd.
However, there are a precious few that will have to look to rival camps, or an opponent on the other side of the pitch to find their most vociferous supporter.
That is the rather uneasy situation set to befall Lioness star Beth Mead and Netherlands' Vivianne Miedema whose nations have been drawn in the same group.
But they are not the only ones. These are the partners poised to do battle at this summer's tournament and a few others who are lucky their biggest fan will be watching from the stands.
Former Barcelona team-mates Ingrid Engen and Maria Leon are believed to have begun dating shortly after the former completed a move to the Nou Camp in 2021.
The pair went viral after sharing a kiss at the last European Championship.
Despite winning three women's Champions Leagues and six Spanish titles, Leon's influence stretches far beyond the pitch, with her being the first openly homosexual player in the Spanish professional leagues.
She was forced to bid an emotional farewell to her partner Engen last month when she completed a move to French side Lyon. There will also be some split loyalties if their respective nations meet at this summer's tournament.
Engen's Norway could face Leon's Spain as early as the quarter-final stage.
Guro Reiten (Norway) and Julie Nilssen
Chelsea and Norway winger Guro Reiten is expecting her first child with her partner Julie Nilssen, who reportedly works for the Norwegian clothing brand Amundsen Sports.
It's not known when the two began dating but Nilssen first appeared in Reiten's Instagram posts as far back as December 2023, in a cute image that showed the couple in a wintery warm embrace.
Reiten joins an unfancied Norway squad, ranked as seventh favourites among the bookmakers to triumph in Switzerland this summer.
Danielle van de Donk (Netherlands) and Ellie Carpenter (Australia)
Danielle van de Donk will be spared the unease of playing against her new wife Ellie Carpenter this summer but the two are set to go head-to-head in the WSL next term.
Matildas star Carpenter has joined Chelsea on a four-year deal from Lyon, where she enjoyed a five-year stint and lifted two women's Champions League titles. Meanwhile, Netherlands star Van de Donk, 33, announced earlier this summer that she would be joining up with newly promoted London City Lionesses.
Carpenter and Van de Donk, who previously dated Netherlands team-mate Miedema, are understood to have met when the Oranje star, 33, joined up with the French outfit in 2021.
The pair went public on their relationship back in 2023 and announced their engagement on New Year's Day in 2024.
Carpenter and Van de Donk tied the knot in a stunning ceremony at the Chateau Hermitage de Combas in southern France's Servian region.
The pair published several pictures from the day on Instagram, with Carpenter writing: 'I choose you. I will always choose you.'
Carpenter and Van de Donk are understood to have met when the Oranje star, 33, joined Lyon 2021
Frida Maanum (Norway) and Emma Lennartsson (Former footballer)
Arsenal midfielder Frida Maanum and former defender Emma Lennartsson began dating during the five years in which they shared a dressing room at the Swedish club Linkopings FC.
Lennartsson, a vastly experienced player and stalwart of the club, took the teenage Maanum under her wing when she joined the side in 2017.
'When I came here as an 18-year-old, she meant so much to me,' the Gunners star told Vavel in 2020. 'She made me feel welcomed, and she really took great care of me. She still does.'
The 34-year-old Lennartsson - who retired last month - will be sure to put national allegiances aside this summer when he watches her partner take to the field for Norway.
Lauren Hemp (England) and Ashley Hodson (Former footballer)
The Lionesses will be delighted to have a fully-fit and firing Lauren Hemp as part of their ranks for the Euros after an injury-hit campaign. The Manchester City winger will be crucial to any success Sarina Wiegman's can attain.
And the 24-year-old will no doubt be thankful for the support of her partner, former Liverpool and Sheffield United midfielder, Ashley Hodson.
The pair are believed to have begun dating in 2023 and regularly feature in each other's social media posts, most recently during a sun-filled summer getaway ahead of the tournament.
Kerstin Casparij (Netherlands) and Ruth Brown
Manchester City defender Kerstin Casparij will have to endure some time away from the north England bliss she enjoys with partner Ruth Brown when she links up with the Oranje squad in Switzerland this summer.
The 24-year-old went public with her relationship in a 2024 Instagram post but the pair's romantic beginnings have recently been revealed in an advert for Tinder.
Casparij and Brown met on the dating app in 2023 and have gone on to delight fans with their shared content on TikTok.
Alex Greenwood (England) and Jack O'Connell (Former footballer)
Lioness defender Alex Greenwood in a relationship with former Sheffield United star Jack O'Connell. The pair have been together for about a decade after first meeting at their sixth-form college Savio Salesian in Bootle, Merseyside.
O'Connell, who hung up his boots in 2023, often supports Greenwood at matches when two aren't dissecting footage of the day's most important football match.
'Often, at home, all Jack and I talk about is football,' Greenwood told The Guardian in 2023. 'We watch it and analyse it all the time.
'People ask what I do to get away from the game but I don't want to escape it.'
Lotte Wubben-Moy (England) and Tao Geoghegan Hart (cyclist)
Friends of sporting power couple Lotte Wubben-Moy and Tao Geoghegan Hart must be sick to death with their tales of success and high-achievement.
Last month, the Arsenal defender added the women's Champions League to her myriad of domestic cup wins and Euro 2022 crown, while partner Geoghegan Hart is one of only five British riders to win a grand tour.
The 30-year-old became the youngest British rider to do so when he claimed the Giro d'Italia in 2020.
Wubben-Moy, 26, and Geoghegan Hart went public with their relationship in 2021 and have since shared tons of heartwarming posts on their social media.
Ella Toone (England) and Joe Bunney (Stalybridge Celtic)
Lioness star Ella Toone is dating a non-league footballer who is her 'biggest cheerleader'. Fresh from her goal scoring exploits at Euro 2022, the 25-year-old was spotted enjoying a loved-up holiday with her beau Joe Bunney.
The pair were snapped partying in Ibiza, where they were hugging and kissing on the beach. The couple were introduced to each other through mutual friends, with the Sun quoting an anonymous associate as saying 'they are the perfect pairing'.
The friend added: 'Joe is Ella's biggest cheerleader and he could not have been more proud to watch her lifting the trophy at the Euros.
'They keep their love life out of the spotlight usually but Joe couldn't resist joining Ella in Ibiza to celebrate with her.'
Since their relationship came to light, Ella has been full of praise for Joe on social media and often posts selfies of them together.
When Chloe Kelly takes to the field for the Lionesses against France on Saturday, it will mark a year since she tied the knot with fiancé Scott Moore in a stunning wedding at a country estate in Cheshire.
The Arsenal forward met her spouse when she was playing for Everton and he was working as a groundsman at the club.
'One day I held the door for him,'; Kelly told British Vogue. 'And ever since that day he kept saying he was going to message me, when he did slide into my DMs, I didn't see it for ages, because it was in my requests folder, and then when I did see it I was like, "Who is this?" But when I saw a few people that I knew had followed him, I realised, I must know him.'
The pair hit it off on their first date to Ikea, which happened because Chloe was moving home.
Kelly has been in a relationship with Moore, who is thought to work for a golf centre, for more than five years and they have largely kept their romance out of the public eye.
Beth Mead (England) and Vivianne Miedema (Netherlands)
'We keep in contact but when it gets closer to our games, we don't talk football whatsoever,' England star Beth Mead told the BBC ahead of the Euros where she will meet partner Vivianne Miedema in the group stages of the tournament.
Mead and Miedema, who both missed the 2023 World Cup after suffering ACL injuries within a month of each other at the end of 2022, began dating earlier that year. Their respective absences from that tournament will only make their determination for success stronger in Switzerland.
'Obviously we want each other to do well but not against each other!' added Mead.
The two forwards were team-mates at Arsenal for seven years and are proud parents to their dog Myle. But Miedema was forced to wave goodbye to their cocker spaniel and embark on a long-distance with Mead after moving up north to join Manchester City last summer.
July 9 is a day Mead and Miedema are likely to be dreading as England take on the Netherlands in Zurich. They will likely be thankful that the clash is only a group stage match and not one that will decide the eventual winner of the tournament.
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Magdalena Eriksson (Sweden) and Pernille Harder (Denmark)
Swedish club Linkopings FC appears to be a fertile ground for Scandinavian relationships in the women's game. Just as Frida Maanum and Emma Lennartsson grew close during their time at the club, so too did Eriksson and Harder, who were later team-mates at Chelsea.
The couple, who began dating in 2014, shared a kiss at the women's World Cup in 2019 that went viral and prompted an outpouring of gratitude from young people who identify as LGBTQ+.
'We've played without privilege and now we are privileged,' Eriksson told The Guardian in 2019. 'So now we want to give back to those people who don't have the same situations we do.'
Their now iconic photo featured the Dane Harder in a Sweden jersey as she supported her partner. But the couple will have to put those niceties to the side when they clash in their tournament opener on July 4.
Jess Carter (England) and Ann-Katrin Berger (Germany)
England defender Jess Carter and Germany stopper Ann-Katrin Berger announced their engagement in a heartfelt social media post last year.
The pair initially met while playing for Birmingham City in 2016 before reuniting at Chelsea three years later where they established their relationship. Carter and Berger have since moved to the National Women's Soccer League side Gotham FC.
Their eight-year relationship has endured several highs and lows, perhaps none more so than Berger's two bouts of thyroid cancer.
'I think I was – and probably still am – more comfortable than Ann is with publicising our relationship, but that is just because Ann is a very private person whereas I am more of a 'the whole world could know and I wouldn't really care' kind of person,' Carter said in 2021.
'Over time and because I will say whatever, she has kind of got used to it and goes with it. By seeing that it is normal and you can be whoever you want to be ... (it) shows younger people that it is okay to be you.'
Lea Schuller (Germany) and Martina Piemonte (Italy)
Schuller announced her shock split from Olympic gold medallist Lara Vadlau last August
Ahead of this summer's tournament, Germany striker Lea Schuller opened up on her relationship with Italy's Martina Piemonte. According to German outlet Bild, the two have been together for several months.
The two strikers, who could meet at the semi-final stage of the competition, share the same goalscoring celebration; tapping of the head with the right index finger.
Piemonte, 27, had a brief spell in the WSL with Everton before moving to Lazio, where she now plies her trade. Meanwhile, who plays for Bayern Munich, was part of the Germany team that lost in the European Championship final to England at Wembley three years ago.
Schuller split from Olympic gold medallist Lara Vadlau last August. The would-be Olympic power couple shocked fans with the revelation that the pair had separated in the previous November.