It’s a chilly September afternoon in Walhamstow, and Hannah Hampton is in goal. It’s her first day off in weeks, and she’s spending it on a football pitch with a puffy-coat-clad crew in east London for her Glamour Women of the Year 2025 cover shoot.
It’s been exactly 61 days since the 24-year-old footballer won the UEFA European Women’s Championship with England, better known as the Lionesses, and the plaudits, quite rightly, are still rolling in. Just four days before we meet, Hannah became the first female goalkeeper to win the Trophée Yachine at the Ballon d’Or, the world’s most prestigious football awards ceremony. Prior to the Euros, Hannah delivered a momentous performance for Chelsea Women FC, keeping 13 clean sheets in 22 league appearances to secure the club’s sixth consecutive Women’s Super League title. Not to mention an FA Cup win (and another clean sheet) over Manchester United in May. At this point, ‘Woman of the Year’ feels like something of an understatement.
“I don’t think I’ve heard everything that happened this year just rattled off like that,” says Hannah, when I put these achievements to her. “It’s obviously lovely to hear,” she continues, “but I know I’m nowhere near done.”
At Hannah’s request, Olivia Dean’s Man I Need reverberates through the air as she volleys a ball back and forth with one of the production assistants on the shoot. I am constantly resisting the urge to duck. Hannah’s warm blonde hair is loose, no trademark ponytail today, and falls like a sheet down the back of her custom-made Glamour football shirt, designed exclusively for us by Hattie Crowther, which she wears with black Studio Nicholson trousers. Four hours and two outfit changes later, Hannah sits next to me at a plastic table in the old-school clubhouse just off the pitch, wearing a Tala sweater, trackies, and McQueen trainers. “I just like going subtle,” she says of her style.
I initially get the impression that Hannah – like the vast majority of footballers I’ve interviewed – prefers to let her on-field performance do most of the talking. As the shoot wraps, she’s the last to leave the pitch, kicking a ball high into the air while the production team shuffles inside for warmth. But when she’s actually sat across from me, we relax into an easy conversation – each dipping into the tub of Cadbury’s Heroes nearby. She’s an endearing mix of funny and serious, always the first to laugh at herself, but answering all of my questions with real sincerity.
I say I like her ‘H’ necklace, which, she tells me, was bought for her by a friend ahead of the 2022 Euros, her first senior international tournament. “Everyone who cared a lot for me growing up called me ‘H’,” she explains. “It was a way of just having them with me through what was then the biggest tournament of my life.
While Hannah has always had a strong support network of family and friends, she knows what it’s like to be underestimated. Born in Birmingham in 2000, Hannah had strabismus, or a squint, a serious eye condition that required multiple surgeries at Birmingham Children’s Hospital before she turned three years old. As it primarily impacts her depth perception, Hannah’s parents were advised by doctors not to let her play sports – or pursue a career as a fighter pilot or a brain surgeon, for that matter. At the age of five, she moved with her family from Studley in Warwickshire to Spain, where – despite the doctors’ warnings and facing extra scrutiny as a girl playing on boys’ teams – she was empowered to play football. “I was always told I’d never be a footballer. And that was my incentive,” she explains. “Every game that I went to, all the parents and all the lads from the team kept saying, ‘Oh look, there’s a girl!’ I would go and prove people wrong.
Even recently, a lot of England fans didn’t want me in their team,” Hannah continues, referencing social media comments following fan-favourite goalkeeper Mary Earps’s decision to retire five weeks ahead of the Euros this year, leaving Hannah – then with only 13 international appearances under her belt – as England’s No.1 goalkeeper. “I’d like to think after the summer, maybe I’ve changed one or two people’s opinions, but I’ll keep going to try and change as many as I possibly can.”
Did the pressure amp up in the wake of Mary’s sudden retirement? I ask. “Obviously, the pressure felt bigger,” Hannah starts. “But that wasn’t because of Mary’s retirement. It was more because I knew that if England got knocked out early, I’d get all the blame put on me because of how good Mary was for the England squad.”
Hannah and Mary have each spoken out about the charged response to the latter’s retirement. Speaking on Fearne Cotton’s Happy Place podcast in June, Mary said she felt “villanised” over the decision as some fans speculated it could cost England the Euros, while Hannah said, “I think there’s been quite a bit of scrutiny that [Mary] probably doesn’t deserve, with everything that she’s achieved in the game,” (per The Telegraph). Still, that didn’t stop some fans speculating of a rift between the pair after Mary presented Hannah with the Trophée Yachine at the Ballon d’Or Awards.
It’s an all-too-familiar narrative for women in the public eye, who are constantly pitted against one another, rather than being given the space to share in each other’s achievements. For sportswomen like Hannah and Mary, who had to compete against each other – you know, as part of their job – for England’s No.1 spot, the rumour-mill often works overtime.
In our conversation, Hannah sets the story straight, shutting down all speculation of rivalry: “Everyone’s trying to say that there’s bad blood between us, and it’s so horrible to see because if you question it, people are going to be like, ‘She’s just doing this for that…’ You don’t question it, and people are like, ‘Oh, she’s not said anything about it.’ It’s so hard.
It was a lovely moment when Mary was on stage at the Ballon d’Or,” Hannah continues. “She’d pushed so much for that award, and she pushed for the women’s game and for women’s goalkeeper to be seen and recognised. Everything she’s done for the England game and women’s football in general is something I’ve wanted to continue and build on. I’ve got big shoes and big gloves to fill. I’m trying my hardest. I don’t think I’ll ever get to the standard she was at, but it was a lovely thing that she was able to be there.”
As sisterhood is the global theme for Glamour’s Women of the Year Awards this year, I’m keen to know how Hannah relates to the concept. “It’s unity, women’s empowerment,” Hannah starts. “Society is a hard place for women. We have to keep on breaking down barriers, whether in football or in day-to-day life. Having strong, independent women who are fighting for change around you keeps you going and pushes you on to create change for the next generation.”
Hannah reflects on how the shared bond of sisterhood among her England teammates enabled them to overcome a shaky start at the Euros, following their 2-1 loss in the opening match against France. “We all got together in a room, players and staff included, and just had an honest conversation about encouraging each other to express ourselves, not being afraid of what people say or the opinions of the fans. Just playing for the little girls who fell in love with the game from the get-go.”
While there’s clearly a huge bond between all the Lionesses, Hannah confirms there’s a special sisterhood reserved for female goalkeepers. “I think goalkeepers are always shut in the corner,” she begins. “They’re always the first out to train and always the last in.”
“During the Euros with Khiara Keating and Anna Moorhouse (England’s No.2 and No.3 keepers), we knew that we’d all have each other’s backs, we’d all be pushing for everyone to improve. And we knew that whoever was playing would be given 100% to go and create history.”
History was certainly made, but for Hannah, the journey there was far from smooth sailing. In 2022, when she was 21, it was reported that she’d been dropped by England due to her “behaviour and attitude”. The Guardian reported that she had been sidelined by her then-team, Aston Villa, and was unlikely to ever play for her country under Sarina Wiegman again. “I just couldn’t deal with things,” Hannah reflects, adding that she almost threw the towel in on her football career at this point. “I remember actually going into Villa and saying, ‘Thank you very much, but this is me done.’ And yeah, that was a hard place to be in and to get myself out from.”
Hannah has since wrestled with the media obligations that come with being an elite sportswoman. “I’ve always said I don’t want to do any media. I say it to my agency, I say it to the club, to England. I don’t want to do any because I know the negative effect that it’s had on me, and I don’t want to be in the same position again.” She never wants to feel like she did back in 2022 again. “I don’t want to have to contemplate giving up the game that I love, and just being so low and miserable. It was a challenge to get out of it the first time. It’s a challenge going through it the second time right now.” Here, I believe she is perhaps referencing the social media furore after she spoke about throwing Spanish goalkeeper Cata Coll’s water bottle into the stands at the Euros final in Switzerland.
We discuss how Hannah pulls herself back from the brink when these stories take off. “People are entitled to their opinions, but it’s so hard to hear people speak negatively of you or to try to put you down,” she reflects. “I really doubted my belief and my confidence. It knocked me quite low. So, I went off it. I just could not deal with any social media at all.” As well as coming off her socials, [she now uses a third party to manage her digital handles], Hannah prioritises her mental health. “I’ve always had a psychologist,” she explains. “I work with them very closely to help get me through the dark and hard moments, to go back to doing what I love doing with a smile on my face.”
Hannah also uses her platform to advocate for others. In her Ballon d’Or speech, she powerfully paid tribute to Matt Beard, the trailblazing former Liverpool FC Women’s manager, who tragically died by suicide in September this year. “Matt was always there from the start,” says Hannah. “He always supported women. He always knew that women could go and achieve greatness. He cared for you as a person before the player, and he wanted to get to know you.” She pauses, “You don’t realise the struggles that people are going through. Sometimes, the brightest smiles in the room hide the heaviest pain.
Everyone thinks mental health is such a taboo subject,” Hannah continues. “I think it’s the opposite; to come out and say that you’re not OK and that you need help is a strength. It’s OK to admit you’re not OK.”
Thanks to the tireless efforts of coaches like Matt, the women’s game is going from strength to strength in England – and the Lionesses have played a pivotal role in its ongoing growth and development. Interest in women’s football jumped following England’s latest Euros campaign, with 31% of adults saying they’re “fairly interested” in women’s football – up from 17% before the tournament (as per YouGov). And since the Lionesses’ first Euros win back in 2022, the number of women’s and girls’ football teams has doubled (per Football Beyond Borders). Inspiring the next generation of female footballers is important to Hannah. “We know where we want to get the women’s game,” she tells me. “We know we want to encourage more and more girls to take part in the sport and not be afraid, looked down on or talked about negatively in schools or in the playground.”
While interest in women’s football is at an all-time high, girls still face additional barriers to participating in sport. A 2024 Unesco report found that 49% of girls drop out of sports during adolescence – a whopping six times higher than the dropout rate of adolescent boys – and is often associated with a lack of confidence and negative body image. I ask if this is something Hannah can relate to. “Yeah, still now,” she replies. “It’s definitely a big thing. So many times, I see myself in photos or I see myself on video and I judge myself. I’m probably my own worst critic. Let’s be honest: everyone is.
“But that doesn’t reflect how everyone else sees you. It doesn’t stop people being friendly. It doesn’t stop people being your mate. People just get on with you because they see who you are as a person, who your personality is, and that’s what people care about. If you’re talented and doing what you love, just keep following your smile.”
Hannah is on a roll: “Body image is obviously a big thing for women, but it’s also our strength. Our body heals very well and creates humans. We need to empower ourselves, be supportive of one another and respect our bodies. Muscle is always going to be bigger than fat, and that’s OK. You want to be strong, you want to be fit, you want to be healthy. And I’ve always said, getting those chubby thighs, it’s fine. I’m OK with that if I’m going to be fit and healthy and doing the thing that I love.”
As Hannah reflects on the power and strength of women’s bodies, I’m reminded of when she saved two penalties during England’s win over Sweden in the quarter-finals of the Euros in July – all with a ‘tampon’ up her bloodied right nostril. Along with England defender Lucy Bronze strapping up her own injured leg in the absence of a physiotherapist (who, understandably, already had their hands full) during the same quarter-final, the image became one of the defining moments of the tournament, showcasing a tough-as-boots mentality that is, arguably, waning in the men’s game. Case in point: “Someone sent me a video the other day of Dame Emma Thompson saying, ‘You know what I saw recently? Hannah Hampton doing a penalty shoot-out with a tampon up her nose,” laughs Hannah. “I thought, ‘I’ve officially made it,’ the highlight of my year.
“I think a lot of people knock us women for not being capable of all the physical battles and mental battles that you have to go through,” she adds. “We are just as tough, if not tougher, than the men. We get on with things. We learn to just pick ourselves up and keep breaking down those barriers as much as we possibly can to help the women’s game grow. And if that’s us playing through knocks and bumps, we’ll do just that.”
It wasn’t just physical injuries that Hannah had to navigate during the tournament; she was also grieving the loss of her grandpa, Derek, who passed away two days before the competition started. After winning the Euros, Hannah shared a tribute to him on Instagram, revealing that she’d been playing in a shirt with ‘Grandpa’ printed on the inside of the collar. “We were very close,” Hannah tells me. “He always drove me to games and to England camps where my parents couldn’t. He would be there on the side of the pitch and the muddy fields, with my nan as well, cheering on from the side.”
She continues: “The fact that he passed two days before the opening game was very hard and a big struggle. But I thought, this is my moment, and I know that he’d be looking down, being proud. I wanted to keep his legacy going. He helped me through very hard moments of my life and my career.”
When I ask Hannah what’s on the horizon, I’m primed to hear about Chelsea’s Champions League campaign, whether they can win the quadruple, and maybe even something about the Women’s World Cup in 2027. Instead, we return to Birmingham Children’s Hospital, where Hannah was operated on as a child. She is now a proud ambassador for the hospital, and plans to visit the children soon. “I love giving back to others,” she smiles. “And remembering who got me to where I am today. If I can do anything that I possibly can to help anyone, I’ll do whatever I can to put a smile on their face and help them through a hard moment in their life.”
Photographer: Suleika Mueller
Stylist: Jack O’Neill
Interview: Lucy Morgan
Hair: Sandra Hahnel at Caren Agency using Sam McKnight
Make-Up: Brooke Simons at Caren Agency using MERIT
Nails: Michelle Class at LMC Worldwide using Joonbyrd
Production: ZRD Production
Videographer: Sam W McFadden
Digi Tech: Neil Bennett
Photographer’s Assistant: Jake Milsom
Production Assistant: Daria Shipovskikh
Production Assistant: David Foster
Stylist Assistant: Lorna Lane
