England legend Kelly Smith returns with a bonus column after the Lionesses beat Germany to win Women's Euro 2022.
Kelly Smith scored 46 goals in 117 matches during a 19-year international career and until recently was the Lionesses' all-time leading goalscorer. A trailblazer for the women's game, she spent more than a decade playing in the USA, won 14 major trophies with Arsenal including the Champions League and played in the 2009 Euros final.
How do I sum up that England just won the Euros? It's impossible really.
I was watching the final at Wembley with Karen Carney my former England team-mate and when Chloe Kelly's goal went in we were both in tears hugging each other, it was just an incredible moment. I had so many feelings.
- England win Euros for first time
- Mead wins Golden Boot and Player of Tournament
- 'A night dreams are made of'
It was spine-tingling, goosebump stuff. To see so many people celebrating our beautiful game afterwards, and to celebrate with them too, was incredibly special.
To see what this team has done for not only the women's game but for our country as a whole, more than anything it made me so proud to be English.
The Lionesses have brought it home!
— Sporting Life Football & Infogol (@InfogolApp) July 31, 2022
Women's Euro 2022 winners 👏#WEuro2022 pic.twitter.com/MsgBOHDHFl
Part of the journey
The reason it was so overwhelming is because you start to think about a lot of things.
We appreciate all the hard work we put in as players, and those players before us, to play our part in helping women's football get to this point.
I've had so many messages from people saying I had a hand on that trophy which I totally disagree with. What I do think though is we can't forget the journey the women's game has been on - I was playing part-time and working alongside being an England player.
Now as full-time professionals and incredible role models, these girls have paved the way for this next generation of boys and girls in this country to think and talk about women's football and how good it is like that is the normal.
All the former players, volunteers, grassroots coaches, people at the FA - everyone involved has helped build up to this crowning moment.
England could be the next USA
What it feels like is that women's football has now properly arrived in this country.
For so long I wanted this moment. I would have loved to have been playing and part of it myself, but just to witness it and then to see how the press have picked up on it is fantastic.
It's helped unite a whole nation - front pages and back. It's finally getting the coverage it deserves.
Seeing Chloe Kelly celebrate by swinging her shirt around her head made my memory immediately flashed back to Brandi Chastain scoring that winning penalty for the USA on home soil at the 1999 World Cup.
The impact that had on US national soccer was incredible, with it becoming bigger as a sport in the country than top-tier men's football in the subsequent years.
It is a truly groundbreaking moment to win a first ever major tournament on home soil.
What we now have to see is the same kind of growth for the women's game here as they had America, especially in the club system.
The Women's Super League (WSL) is packed full of the England players that everyone knows all about now, and also has some fantastic international players in it too.
When it comes around on September 11 we want to see full stadiums and that should just be the starting point for the growth of the league.
Super Sarina
The legacy and impact of winning the Euros is one thing but we just have to talk about the incredible job that Sarina Wiegman has done. I don't know what she's got but I want some of that.
She's waved a magic wand over this team to transform them.
The previous couple of managers probably weren't the right fit but she definitely is and you can just hear it in the way the girls talk about her.
That's why the FA brought her in - they went out and got one of the best coaches in the world.
Sarina has driven this Lionesses side to what is a defining, beautiful moment for our country and she deserves enormous credit for that.
Sarina Wiegman appreciation tweet.
— Sporting Life Football & Infogol (@InfogolApp) July 31, 2022
Back-to-back Women's Euro tournament wins.
Since her #ENG appointment in September 2021:
‣ 20 games
‣ 0 defeats
‣ 18 wins
‣ 106 goals scored
‣ 5 goals conceded#WEuro2022 pic.twitter.com/Iegm5ejuRC
All eyes on World Cup
It probably sums up Sarina Wiegman that although she spoke brilliantly in thanking the trailblazers and everyone who played their part on the journey, she was also already happy to turn thoughts to the World Cup straight away in her post-match press conference.
England have made so much progress in this tournament and not just because they won the trophy.
They've dug in to beat Spain, and overcame mental blocks and huge losing records against Sweden and Germany to beat them too.
The way they won this tournament, scoring so many goals and conceding so few, they will have so much confidence and genuinely believe they can win the World Cup next year. At the bare minimum they've got to be aiming to put themselves in the final in Australia.
The majority of the team will stay together, I can't really see many (if any) of them retiring, and they're only going to get stronger as a group.
You look at the impact there has been from the three young girls - Chloe Kelly, Ella Toone and Alessia Russo - off the bench this tournament and there is every chance they will be starters next summer.
I wouldn't rule out Steph Houghton coming back in either. She hasn't said she's retiring form international football. There could be a couple of others who force their way back in over the next 12 months too to make this Lionesses team even stronger.
Everyone will want to be part of it. Who wouldn't want some of this?
