Moving the Goalposts: As a girl I dreamed about covering women's football. Now it is a reality.

From a low-key Euros to the Lionesses at World Cups, writing about women’s football has come on a lot in the past 20 years

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/jul/06/as-a-girl-i-dreamed-about-covering-womens-football-now-it-is-a-reality-moving-the-goalposts-euro-2022


Lauren Hemp on an advertising board in London before the start of the European Championship. Photograph: John Phillips/Getty Images for Nike

It has been a long journey but here we are, in 2022, with a Women’s European Championship about to start in England at a sold-out Old Trafford – and it is my job to write about it. When I grew up, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, that seemed an impossible dream. Back then women’s football and women in football were simply not visible. No matter how much time I dedicated to learning, analysing, writing and being consumed by the game, thinking about a career in the sport as a young girl – however that might look – never seemed a viable choice.

So when I was asked to write about my emotions as the tournament is about to start I honestly didn’t know where to begin. It is so hard to describe how I am feeling right now on the eve of a home European Championship. That is a slight problem for a writer – my entire job is literally to find the words. But at this particularly poignant moment in my career they are hard to come by. But I will do my best. My journey into journalism has been far from linear. I am certainly not unique in the role that football has played in my life. For as long as I can remember, the sport has guided, lifted and influenced me in ways beyond what happens on the pitch. It is a part of my identity. It gave me a tribe to be a part of in a world in which I, at times, struggled to belong.


England’s Lucy Bronze (right) under pressure from the Netherlands’ Lieke Martens in their pre-Euro 2022 friendly. Photograph: Molly Darlington/Action Images/Reuters

In the past 20 years the whole landscape has completely changed. The last time England hosted the Euros, in 2005, many would have never known the tournament was on. Held in the north-west of the country, Hope Powell’s part-time outfit were talented, featuring players such as Kelly Smith, Rachel Yankey, Fara Williams and Alex Scott. It saw a 17-year-old Karen Carney break out on to the international scene but it would still be a long while before the sport really established itself. London 2012 altered the playing field for the women’s game in this country, a catalyst for everything that has happened in the sport since. You could feel it in the atmosphere when Team GB beat Brazil in front of more than 70,000 at Wembley; remembering that roar when Steph Houghton hit the back of the net still sends shivers down my spine.

It also altered things personally; a moment that changed the trajectory of my career. What started out as a hobby and a thirst for knowledge turned into a passion project as I and my partner, Rachel, began GirlsontheBall.com. Our aim was to bring women’s football to more people and tell the stories of the players who have dedicated their lives to the game both through the written word and various digital formats. That “hobby” – I am a bit loth to call it that because it was more like a second job worked around full-time employment – has now turned into a full-time career. Women’s football’s growth and popularity have seen it professionalise on and off the pitch, providing opportunities for so many that the teenage me could only dream of. The thoughts that I write down and the stories that I get to tell are now published fortnightly in a national newspaper. It is little wonder that I still have to pinch myself at times to remember that this is real.

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